UNIVERSITYq/miFDRNIA 


COLLEGE  of  MINING 


DEPARTMENTAL 
LIBRARY 


BEQUEST  OF 
SAMUELBENEDICTCHRISTY 


PROFESSOR  OF 

MINING  AND   METALLURGY 
1885-1914 


EB96 


Oe  O 

*•-:•  H>i 


THE 


AMATEUR  PHOTOGRAPHER'S 


HAND  BOOK. 


A  MANUAL  OF  INSTRUCTION  FOE  THE  AMATEUR 


PHOTOGRAPHY  MADE  EAST. 


BY  ARTHUR  HOPE. 

n 


AUTHOB  OF    "SORRENTO   AND   INLAID    WORK."    "WOOD   CARVING,' 
"ENGRAVING  ON   WOOD,"  ETC. 


CHICAGO: 

THE  JOHN  WILKINSON  COMPANY. 
1890. 


H 


COPYRIGHT,  1890, 

BY 
JOHN  WILKINSON. 


PREFACE. 


Although  this  book  cannot  be  called  an  invention,  yet  neces- 
sity is  its  mother;  it  is  needed  by  beginners,  by  amateurs  and 
by  many  who  make  the  art  a  business.  And  this,  after  all,  may 
be  only  another  way  of  alluding  to  "  a  long  felt  want."  It  is 
only  a  little  book,  yet  it  embodies  the  result  of  a  "  powerful 
amount "  of  work  and  experiment. 

When  the  author  was  beguiled  into  buying  a  camera  many 
years  ago,  he  could  find  nothing  in  print  which  explained  clearly 
the  various  operations.  There  were  numerous  instruction  books, 
but  they  omitted  the  explanations  which  were  of  vital  importance 
to  the  beginner.  Therefore  he  was  compelled  to  grope  in  the 
dark,  experimenting  continually,  and  often  uselessly,  wasting 
precious  time — not  to  mention  dollars — which  he  could  ill  afford 
to  lose.  The  instruction  books  misled  him,  as  they  do  to-day, 
and  chemicals  were  wasted  because  the  formulas  were  wrongly 
given.  "  Dissolve  one  ounce  of  pyro  in  sixteen  ounces  water." 
He  did  so,  and  after  four-fifths  of  the  solution  had  grown  black 
and  valueless,  he  learned  that  it  was  not  wise  to  dissolve  more 
pyro  than  was  to  be  used  immediately.  To  make  blue  paper,  the 


directions  were  to  dissolve  about  two  ounces  citrate  iron  and  am- 
monia  in  eight  ounces  of  water,  and  combine  with  the  other 
chemical.  He  did  this  and  made  some  tolerable  prints;  the 
second  time  the  solution  was  used,  the  prints  were  intolerable ; 
and  finally  the  solution  was  poured  in  the  sink.  Again,  it  took 
some  time  to  learn  that  the  iron  and  ammonia  would  not  keep 
fresh  in  solution,  and  should  be  dissolved  in  a  small  quantity 
and  used  fresh.  And  so  it  was  with  many  other  things. 

The  book  is  incomplete;  it  is  not  possible  to  describe  every 
process  in  detail  in  a  space  so  limited ;  yet  it  is  hoped  it  will  be 
a  help  to  all. 

Acknowledgements  are  due  to  the  Scovill  &  Adams  Co.  and 
Messrs  E.  &  H.  T.  Anthony  &  Co.,  who  have  kindly  loaned  their 

cuts. 

ARTHUR  HOPE. 

CHICAGO,  MARCH,  1890. 


CONTENTS. 


muurrjE. 
I. 

tt. 
The  outfit,            -           ... 

PAOB 

II. 

III. 

Chemicals,           ...... 

28 

IV. 

V. 

VI. 

Notes  on  development,        .... 

51 

VII. 

Printing  on  ready  sensitized  paper,    - 

58 

VIII. 

Mounting  and  burnishing  the  prints, 

67 

IX. 

Blue  prints,         ...... 

72 

X. 

Plain  paper  and  albumen  paper, 

77 

XI. 

Stops  and  swing  backs, 

88 

XII. 

Landscapes,                                       .           .           . 

91 

XIII. 

Portraits,              ...... 

97 

XIV. 

Interiors,        ...... 

100 

XV. 

Hints  on  copying,          -           .... 

103 

XVI. 

Lantern  slides,                      .... 

106 

XVII. 

Transparencies,                           .... 

111 

XVIII. 

Enlarging  and  reducing,     -           ... 

114 

XIX. 

Ornamental  photography,                     - 

117 

XX. 

General  hints,           •                      ... 

122 

XXI. 

Residues;             ...... 

127 

XXII. 

Formulas,       ....... 

129 

General  index,    --..__ 

-        148 

CHAPTEE  I. 

THE  OUTFIT. 

WHAT  kind  of  a  camera  shall  I  purchase?  This  is  a 
question  most  perplexing  to  one  unacquainted  with  the 
art  of  photography,  and  is  usually  answered  by  the  advice  to  get 
the  best  the  means  of  the  purchaser  will  permit.  We  do  not 
think,  however,  that  this  would  be  a  wise  plan  to  pursue,  unless 
one  has  the  determination  to  succeed,  and  aims  to  produce  the 
highest  class  of  work.  While  this  should  be  the  aim  of  all  who 
use  the  camera,  the  majority  of  amateurs  take  up  photography 
more  as  a  temporary  amusement,  and  to  those  our  advice  would 
be  to  get  an  outfit  of  moderate  price.  If,  after  using  this  for  a 
season,  one  is  encouraged  by  reasonable  success,  he  will  then  be 
in  a  better  position  to  decide  what  his  requirements  are,  and 
can  make  further  investments  accordingly. 

It  must  not  be  supposed  that  because  a  camera  is  low  in  price, 
the  work  which  it  will  do  is  correspondingly  low  in  quality.  We 
have  seen  excellent  views  made  with  a  camera  and  lens  costing 
only  twelve  dollars,  and  very  fair  small  views  made  with  an  outfit 
costing  half  that  sum. 

We  do  not  think  it  wise  to  recommend  any  particular  make  of 
camera,  as,  where  nearly  all  in  the  market  have  certain  good 
points  about  them,  it  would  be  indelicate  to  advise  the  purchase 
of  one  in  preference  to  another.  Possibly,  if  we  manufactured  a 
particular  style  of  camera,  we  should  advise  all  to  purchase  that 


8 

kind,  and  such  advice  might  mislead  as  to  the  merits  of  different 
goods  made  by  our  competitors.  We  have  our  preferences,  and 
think  the  camera  we  use  is  quite  ahead  of  anything  else ;  but  our 
friend  across  the  way  has  another  which  he  prefers,  and  his 
experience  is  quite  equal  to  our  own. 

A  front-focus  camera,  in  which  the  focus  is  obtained  by  mov- 
ing the  front,  bearing  the  lens,  forward  or  back,  is  by  many 
preferred  to  one  with  a  back-focus,  which  requires  moving  the 
back  to  focus  on  the  object. 


The  camera  should  also  have  a  sliding  front  and  a  swing-back; 
and,  if  the  highest  degree  of  excellence  is  desired,  a  double  swing, 
a  side  swing,  and  revolving  or  reversible  back,  the  uses  of  which 
will  be  explained  hereafter. 

The  above  illustration  shows  a  front -focus  camera  with 
sliding  front,  revolving  back,  and  double  swing. 


THE    OUTFIT.  9 

5x7  and  5x8  cameras  are  convenient  portable  sizes,  which 
will,  by  use  of  kits  in  the  plate-holders,  take  as  well  all  smaller 
sized  views.  We  use  for  landscape  work  both  a  5x8  and  an 
8x10  camera,  and  on  both  a  lens  capable  of  covering  an 
8x10  plate.  A  4x5  view  taken  with  such  a  lens  can  be 
enlarged  to  8x10  or  16x20  with  perfect  clearness.  (See  Chapter 
on  Enlarging.) 

If  only  one  lens  is  purchased  it  is  better  to  get  one  covering 
an  angle  of  from  60  to  65  degrees.  Such  a  lens  will  answer  for 
all  ordinary  purposes.  The  first  camera  the  writer  purchased 
was  a  5x8,  the  cost  of  which,  including  the  lens  and  tripod,  was 
twelve  dollars.  This  was  found  to  be  excellent  for  landscapes 
and  portraits.  Later,  for  the  purpose  of  taking  interiors,  it 
became  necessary  to  add  a  wide-angle  lens,  covering  a  field 
of  about  ninety  degrees,  and  finally  the  old  camera  was 
replaced  by  a  5x8  and  an  8x10,  with  double  and  side  swings, 
and  revolving  backs.  If  stereoscopic  lenses  are  wanted,  we 
think  that  cheap  ones,  costing  from  seven  to  ten  dollars  for 
the  pair,  do  practically  as  good  work  as  those  costing  three 
or  four  times  as  much. 

We  prefer  altogether  for  landscape  work  a  lens  of  long  focus ; 
for  a  5x8  plate  a  lens  of  at  least  eight  inches  focus,  and,  for  an 
8x10,  one  of  twelve  or  thirteen  inches.  For  very  near  views  a 
lens  with  shorter  focus  and  wider  angle  is  suitable ;  but  if  this  is 
used  on  objects  at  a  considerable  distance  it  has  the  effect  of 
crowding  too  much  into  the  picture.  Wide-angle  lenses  are 
required  for  views  of  interiors. 

There  are  multitudes  of  lenses  in  market,  of  excellent  quality, 
Dallmeyer,  Steinheil,  Morrison,  Darlot,  and  a  score  of  others, 


10  THE   AMATEUR    PHOTOGRAPHER'S    HAND   BOOK. 

and  the  amateur  may  be  at  a  loss  to  know  which  to  procure.  "We 
think  he  will  be  quite  safe  to  take  the  advice  of  a  conscientious 
dealer  in  the  selection  of  a  good  lens  as  well  as  of  the  camera 
itself.  We  like  our  imported  "  Strauss  "  lens,  because  it  does 
fine  work  and  was  comparatively  inexpensive,  though  it  is  not,  by 
any  means,  the  best  that  is  made ;  nor  can  we  see  that  it  is  any 
better  than  the  one  in  our  detective  camera,  which  costs  less. 

The  tripod  should  be  strongly  made,  to  hold  the  camera  steady 
when  used,  as  it  sometimes  will  be,  where  the  wind  blows.  A 
tripod  that  can  be  raised  or  lowered,  and  folded  in  small  space 
for  carrying,  is  the  most  convenient  for  use. 

Usually  a  double  plate-holder  comes  with  the  camera.  It  will 
be  well  to  purchase  two  or  three  extra  holders,  with  kits  for 
holding  plates  of  a  smaller  size,  so  that  a  number  of  pictures  can 
be  taken,  without  the  necessity  of  returning  to  the  dark-room  to 
empty  and  refill  the  holder  each  time  it  is  used. 

A  pneumatic  shutter,  one  that  will  work  slowly  for  time 
exposures,  and  rapidly  for  instantaneous  views,  will  be  indis- 
pensable if  a  fine  camera  is  purchased.  Such  a  shutter  renders 
it  easy  to  make  exposures  of  a  second  or  fraction  of  a  second, 
which  cannot  be  done  accurately  by  removing  and  replacing 
the  lens  cap.  Besides  this  it  avoids  all  danger  of  jarring  the 
camera  in  exposing.  As  pneumatic  shutters  are  now  made  at  a 
comparatively  low  price  and  of  excellent  quality,  we  should  advise 
their  use  on  all  cameras. 

In  addition  to  the  camera,  lens  and  tripod,  not  forgetting  the 
very  essential  focusing-cloth,  one  or  more  dozen  dry  plates  of 
the  proper  size  should  be  purchased  at  the  outset.  Do  not  buy 
very  rapid  plates  until  you  have  had  some  experience  in  making 


THE   OUTFIT.  11 

exposures.  Quick  plates  require  a  greater  degree  of  accuracy  in 
the  time  of  exposure  than  slow  ones,  and  are  usually  not  as  easy 
to  develop.  There  are  numerous  makes  of  dry  plates,  and,  as  far 
as  we  have  been  able  to  test  them,  they  are  all  of  good  quality. 
Nearly  all  plate-makers  prepare  plates  of  different  sensitometers, 
or  degrees  of  rapidity.  It  would  be  a  very  great  convenience  to 
photographers  if  all  plate-makers  used  one  standard  scale  for 
marking  the  rapidity  of  their  plates.  As  they  do  not  pursue  this 
course,  we  have  thought  it  not  amiss  to  give  here  the  sensitome- 
ters of  the  plates  made  by  some  of  the  leading  manufacturers. 

CARBTTTT   PLATES. 

These  are  made  of  all  degrees  of  rapidity,  from  10  War- 
nerke's  sensitometer  to  27,  the  "  Eclipse "  plate.  Mr.  Car- 
butt  says  that  there  is  no  quicker  plate  made  than  his 
"  Eclipse,"  and  that  any  brand  bearing  a  higher  number  is  no 
criterion  of  comparative  rapidity.  His  lantern-slide  plates  are 
sens.  10;  "A"  gelatine-albumen  plates  for  transparencies  and 
reproduction  of  negatives,  sens.  10,  11,  12  and  13;  "B"  plates 
for  landscape  and  general  photography,  sens.  16,  17,  18  and  20; 
"  Special "  plates,  sens.  24  and  25,  for  portraits  and  instanta- 
neous views ;  "  Eclipse,"  sens.  27,  also  for  portraits,  instantaneous 
views  and  flash  lights;  Orthochromatic  plates,  to  give  correct 
color  values,  sens.  20  to  25,  for  landscapes  and  interiors. 

SEED    PLATES. 

Sensitometers,  22,  23,  25,  26  and  26  X.  "  The  sensitometer 
number  on  our  plates  indicates  the  rapidity.  The  higher  the 


12  THE   AMATEUR   PHOTOGRAPHER'S   HAND   BOOK. 

number,  the  quicker  the  plate.  The  difference  between  one  num- 
ber and  the  other  is  twenty-five  per  cent;  so  if  one  number 
requires  two  seconds,  the  next  one  higher  would  require  one 
and  a  half  seconds,  and  so  with  each  successive  number." 

CRAMER    PLATES. 

Ordinary  sensitometers  run  from  thirty  to  sixty,  though 
they  sometimes  make  as  slow  as  fifteen.  "  "We  have  adhered 
to  the  old  system  of  numbering  our  plates,  which  is  to  com- 
pare the  sensitiveness  of  them  with  a  collodion  wet  plate.  Thus 
a  fifteen  sens,  plate  will  require  the  fifteenth  part  of  the  exposure 
of  a  wet  plate,  etc.  When  trying  to  ascertain  the  sensitiveness 
of  a  plate,  we  compare  it  with  one  whose  sensitiveness  we  know, 
(our  standard  twenty-five  sens.),  and  by  long  practice  we  are 
enabled  to  come  within  a  point  or  two.  Most  plate-makers  use 
the  Warnerke  sensitometer,  but  since  they  cannot  be  relied  on 
we  think  we  will  have  to  stick  to  our  old  plan  and  wait  for  the 
advent  of  the  standard  light. 

"  We  make  plates  as  slow  as  fifteen  sens.,  but  there  is  com- 
paratively little  demand  for  plates  slower  than  thirty.  Most  of 
the  plates  we  send  out  are  forty  to  sixty.  Higher  numbers  are 
difficult  to  work,  and  we  do  not  encourage  photographers  to 
use  them. 

EASTMAN   PLATES. 

The  "  Peerless  "  plates,  made  by  the  Eastman  Co.,  are  made  in 
all  sensitometers  from  28  to  35  Warnerke.  Their  lantern-slide 
plates,  called  "  Permanent  Bromide  Transparency,"  are  about  8 


THE   OUTFIT.  13 

sensitometer.  They  also  make  all  standard  sizes  of  transparency 
plates  up  to  10x12  with  backs  of  ground  glass. 

Besides  these  glass -plates  this  company  also  makes  a  large  line 
of  bromide  paper,  transparent  films  and  transferotype  paper, 
which  are  for  sale  by  all  dealers. 

HARVARD  PLATES. 

"  We  manufacture  but  one  grade  of  plate,  sens.  40.  This  is 
sensitive  enough  for  general  portrait  work,  and  is  particularly 
successful  for  landscape  work." 

CHICAGO   PLATES. 

are  made  in  all  sensitometers  from  20  to  30.  20  to  22  are  for 
slow  exposures;  22  to  26  are  medium  to  quick;  and  27  to  30  for 
instantaneous. 


CHAPTER  II. 

FIUST  EXPOSUBES. 

^T II  TELL,  boys,  we  have  a  bright  Saturday  morning  at  last, 

and  I  am  glad  you  have  brought  your  new  cameras  along 

BO  that  we  can  start  at  once  to  take  the  promised  photographs." 

"  Haven't  filled  your  plate-holders  yet?  Well,  you  had  better 
run  up  into  my  dark-room  and  fill  them  there." 

"O,  you  never  have  filled  any  before?  Well,  then  I  will  go 
with  you  and  show  you  just  how  the  thing  is  done." 

"  Now,  before  we  go  into  the  dark-room,  we  will  just  look  over 
the  things  and  see  what  plates  and  plate-holders  we  have  with  us. 
So  you  have  three  boxes  of  plates  with  you,  two  boxes  of  5x8  and 
one  box  4x5 ;  and  I  notice  they  are  all  very  quick  plates,  that  is, 
plates  which  require  a  very  short  exposure.  I  do  not  think  it 
would  be  well  for  you  to  use  these  quick  plates  at  first,  because  it 
is  so  much  more  difficult  to  judge  with  any  accuracy  the  time 
that  would  be  required  for  the  exposure.  If  you  use  slow  plates 
and  strike  the  time  within  one  or  two  seconds,  your  picture  will 
probably  be  a  success  as  far  as  the  exposure  is  concerned.  But 
if  you  use  a  very  quick  plate  and  expose  it  for  one  or  two  seconds 
too  long,  or  too  short  a  time,  the  result  may  be  disastrous.  So 
for  this  first  effort  your  holders  had  better  be  filled  with  some 
slow  plates,  which  I  will  give  you." 


FIRST    EXPOSURES.  15 

"  Now,  first,  let  us  look  at  the  plate-holders.  We  pull  out  a 
slide  and  notice  that  the  two  sides  are  of  different  colors,  one 
being  light  and  the  other  dark.  One  object  of  this  is  to  show 
which  side  of  the  plate-holder  has  the  plate  which  has  been 
exposed.  When  we  fill  the  holders  we  always  put  the  slides  in 
with  the  light  side  out,  which  will  show  us  that  that  side  of  the 
holder  contains  a  plate  to  be  exposed.  Afterwards,  when  we 
come  to  make  the  exposure,  and  for  that  purpose  withdraw  the 
slide,  we  reverse  the  slide  on  returning  it,  so  that  the  dark  side 
will  be  on  the  outside;  and  whenever  we  see  one  of  the  holders 
with  the  dark  side  of  the  slide  out,  we  shall  understand  that  it 
contains  either  a  plate  that  has  been  exposed,  or  no  plate  at  all. 
These  plate-holders  are  new  and  have  never  been  used,  and,  there- 
fore, we  do  not  hesitate  to  open  them  here  in  the  light;  but  after 
you  have  used  them  a  while  it  will  be  safer  never  to  open  them 
outside  of  the  dark-room." 

"Now  you  notice  this  box  of  plates.  When  we  get  into  the 
dark-room  we  will  take  a  knife  and  cut  this  paper  all  around 
which  binds  the  cover  to  the  box.  Before  doing  this,  however, 
we  will  look  once  more  at  our  plate-holders  and  see  if  they  are 
free  from  dust,  which  is  one  of  the  enemies  the  photographer 
always  has  to  contend  with.  A  little  dust  in  the  plate-holder 
might  settle  on  the  plate  and  trouble  us  hereafter,  so  we  will 
remove  the  slides,  and  with  a  soft  brush  dust  out  the  inside  of 
the  holders  as  carefully  as  we  can." 

"  Now  let  us  take  the  holders  and  our  boxes  of  plates  and  go 
into  the  dark-room;  we  shut  the  door  carefully  behind  us  so  as 
to  exclude  every  portion  of  light  from  without.  If  you  will 
examine  you  will  see  that  the  light  is  entirely  kept  out,  not  a  ray 


16  THE   AMATEUR   PHOTOGRAPHER'S   HAND   BOOK. 

coming  into  the  room  from  under  or  around  the  door  or  from  any 
other  part  of  the  room.  The  exclusion  of  all  white  light  is  a 
very  important  matter,  as  we  shall  see  hereafter.  "We  light  the 
gas  in  our  dark -lantern  and  turn  it  down  rather  low,  so  that  we 
are  just  able  to  read  the  printing  on  the  boxes  of  plates,  which 
we  place  under  the  lantern  where  the  developing  is  usually  done. 
We  now  proceed  to  open  a  box  of  plates  which,  for  our  experi- 
ments to-day,  are  the  slow  landscape  plates  made  by  Mr.  Carbutt, 
sensitometer  16.  We  remove  the  cover  and  find  the  plates  in  the 
box  are  contained  in  two  packages.  As  we  only  wish  to  use  four 
plates  of  this  size,  5x8,  we  open  the  upper  package  which  contains 
six  plates.  The  upper  plate  is  placed  film  side  down ;  we  can 
see  the  difference  in  the  two  sides  plainly  when  we  hold  the  plate 
under  the  dark-lantern,  the  film  side  having  a  dull,  waxy  appear- 
ance, while  the  other  side  reflects  the  light  like  clear  glass.  If 
there  is  any  doubt  about  the  matter  as  to  which  is  the  film  side, 
we  can  always  tell  by  scratching  in  one  of  the  corners  with  a  pen- 
knife. Before  we  place  this  plate  in  the  holder  we  carefully 
brush  it  with  our  soft  camel's-hair  brush,  to  remove  any  particles 
of  dust  which  may  have  settled  on  the  plate.  This  is  very 
important;  remember  always  to  do  it.  Then  we  place  it  in  the 
plate-holder  with  the  film  side  out,  the  side  which  is  to  receive 
the  picture.  This  plate,  when  we  took  it  from  the  package,  was 
film  side  down,  and  we  notice  that  the  next  plate  is  film  side  up, 
so  we  see  that  the  two  upper  plates  were  packed  with  their  film 
surfaces  facing  each  other,  separated  by  narrow  strips  of  card- 
board. This  is  the  way  that  all  plates  are  packed,  each  pair  of 
plates  having  their  sensitive  surfaces  together.  Knowing  this, 
when  later  on  you  may  find  it  necessary  to  fill  any  number  of 


FIRST    EXPOSURES.  17 

plate-holders  at  one  time,  you  will  find  that  you  can  get  along 
just  as  well  in  perfect  darkness  as  to  use  your  dark-lantern, 
because  you  will  know  when  you  take  a  plate  from  the  box 
which  is  the  film  side.  "We  now  put  the  other  plates  in  the 
plate-holders,  including  two  4x5  slow  plates,  for  the  small 
camera." 

"  Before  starting  out  it  will  be  well  to  scratch  a  figure  or  a  letter 
on  each  side  of  the  plate-holders,  so  that  we  can  describe  or 
number  the  holder  when  we  enter  it  in  our  record  book.  This 
record  book  is  indispensable,  and  no  one  should  think  of  taking 
a  photograph  without  a  book  of  the  kind,  which  we  will  now 
describe : 

"  The  most  convenient  size  is  a  blank  book  as  large  as  can  con- 
veniently be  carried  in  the  pocket — say  a  book  about  three  inches 
wide  and  six  inches  long.  We  first  make  a  narrow  column  on 
the  left,  and  write  down  in  this  the  ISTos.  1,  2,  3,  4,  5,  etc.,  to  the 
bottom  of  the  page.  These  numbers  will  be  the  numbers  of  our 
negatives,  and  the  corresponding  numbers  will  be  pasted  on  the 
corner  of  the  negative  after  development.  A  second  narrow 
column  will  contain  the  numbers  or  the  letters  of  the  plate- 
holders,  as  A,  B,  C,  D,  etc.  The  third  column  which 
should  be  wider  than  the  last,  will  contain  sizes  of  the  plates 
and  the  kind  of  plates  used,  as  for  instance,  in  this  case, 
5x8  Carbutt  B.  The  next  narrow  column  will  be  to  record  the 
time  given  for  the  exposure — the  number  of  seconds.  The 
next  column  will  give  the  size  of  the  stop  or  diaphragm  used 
in  the  lens;  the  next,  the  time  of  day  and  the  condition  of 
the  atmosphere,  whether  bright  or  cloudy.  Then  a  broad  column 
on  the  right-hand  page  will  give  space  to  write  down  the 


18 

subject,  and  after  that  the  date  on  which  the  exposure  was 
made.  This  will  give  a  complete  record  of  all  the  exposures 
made,  and  will  be  a  book  of  very  great  value.  We  will  make 
these  entries  in  our  book  now." 

"  Now,  as  we  do  not  propose  to  go  very  far  this  time,  you  had 
better  put  your  cameras  together,  that  is  to  say,  set  them  up  here 
and  leave  behind  the  cases  they  came  in.  In  setting  them  up  be 
very  careful  when  you  fasten  the  camera  to  the  tripod  to  see  that 
it  is  screwed  tight,  so  that  there  is  no  possibility  of  its  coming 
loose  while  carrying  it.  The  three  plate-holders  which  you  have 
I  shall  be  glad  to  carry  in  this  bag,  as  it  is  the  only  thing  I  take 
with  me.  So  let  us  start  along  and  have  a  short  ramble  along 
the  river  road,  where  we  will  probably  find  something  worthy  of 
our  cameras." 

Willie,  who  has  the  best  camera,  is  impatient  to  make  his 
first  trial,  and  hurries  on  ahead.  Turning  a  bend  in  the  road 
after  a  few  minutes'  walk,  we  come  upon  him  with  his  camera 
planted  in  the  road  in  front  of  the  little  country  church,  with  its 
pretty  steeple.  He  is  endeavoring  to  get  the  focus,  but  it  does 
not  work  to  suit  him.  He  had  his  eyes  too  close  to  the  ground- 
glass,  and  was  trying  to  look  through  it  at  the  view.  Then,  when 
he  moved  his  head  back  and  found  that  the  picture  showed  on 
the  glass,  he  was  bothered  because  everything  showed  upside 
down.  This  is  a  little  perplexing  at  first,  but  we  soon  get  accus- 
tomed to  it.  We  criticize  first  the  manner  in  which  he  has  set 
his  tripod.  One  of  the  legs  was  pointed  directly  backward.  We 
arrange  this  so  that  one  of  the  legs  is  directly  in  front,  while  the 
other  two  are  placed  one  on  each  side. 

"  Now  you  see  there  is  no  danger  of  tripping  over  that  leg  or 


FIRST    EXPOSURES.  19 

upsetting  the  camera  while  you  are  arranging  the  focus ;  also  you 
will  see  that  to  raise  the  front  of  the  camera  or  lower  the  back  in 
order  to  level  it,  you  simply  use  the  forward  leg  as  a  sort  of 
pivot  while  you  raise  the  others  from  the  ground,  taking  one  in 
each  hand,  near  the  upper  part." 

Finally  he  succeeds  in  getting  his  focus,  which  he  obtains  by 
moving  the  front  part  of  the  camera,  which  bears  the  lens,  back 
or  forward  until  the  picture  shows  with  distinctness  upon  the 
ground-glass.  Still  he  is  not  satisfied.  He  has  his  focus  all 
right,  but  he  finds  that  he  is  not  able  to  see  the  top  of  the  steeple. 
He  is  trying  to  take  this  picture  of  a  high  building  across  the 
narrow  side  of  his  plate.  Now  his  is  a  reversible  swing-back 
camera,  and  his  5x8  plate  is  placed  horizontally  in  the  camera, 
so  we  reverse  the  ground-glass  by  turning  it  one-fourth  around 
which  makes  it  stand  perpendicular  to  its  former  position.  This 
allows  him  to  see  on  the  ground-glass  more  of  the  steeple  than 
he  could  before,  but  still  the  top  is  not  in  view.  We  notice 
that  the  front  of  the  camera,  which  carries  the  lens,  moves  up 
and  down.  We,  therefore,  loosen  the  thumb-screw  and  raise  the 
front,  and  with  it  the  lens,  and  we  find  on  looking  again  at  the 
picture  on  the  ground-glass,  that  we  have  now  the  whole  of  the 
church  in  view.  Raising  this  front  has  cut'off  some  of  the  fore- 
ground, which  we  did  not  need,  and  has  enabled  us  to  take  in  the 
extreme  top  of  the  steeple.  We  could,  however,  have  accom- 
plished this  result  in  a  different  way.  Instead  of  raising  the 
front,  which  we  now  replace,  we  set  back  the  forward  leg  of  the 
tripod,  which  has  the  effect  of  tilting  the  camera  up,  and  on  look- 
ing at  the  ground-glass  again  we  find  that  by  pointing  the  camera 
up  we  take  in  the  whole  of  the  church  steeple  as  we  did  before; 


20  THE    AMATEUR    PHOTOGRAPHER'S    HAND     BOOK. 

but  we  notice,  however,  another  queer  thing.  The  sides  of  the 
church,  instead  of  being  perpendicular  as  they  should  be, 
seem  to  lean  inward  as  if  they  would  come  to  a  point  if  ex 
tended.  Of  course,  this  would  give  us  an  absurd  representation 
of  the  building  if  we  should  photograph  it  in  that  way,  and  to 
correct  this  we  have  recourse  to  the  swing-back  of  the  camera. 
When  we  tilted  the  camera,  we  noticed  that  the  ground-glass, 
which  before  had  been  perpendicular,  was  inclined  backward. 
We  loosen  the  thumb-screw  which  holds  the  swing-back  and  in- 
cline the  upper  part  of  the  back  forward,  keeping  our  eyes  on  the 
picture  on  the  ground-glass  as  we  do  this.  As  the  glass  is  in- 
clined forward  we  notice  that  the  perpendicular  lines  of  the 
building  gradually  become  erect,  and  when  they  seem  to  be  per- 
fectly true  and  parallel  to  each  other  we  tighten  the  thumb-screw 
to  hold  the  back  in  that  position.  We  notice  now  in  looking  at 
the  back  of  the  camera  that,  while  the  forward  part  of  the  camera 
is  tilted  up,  the  back  of  the  camera  carrying  the  ground  glass  is 
perpendicular.  -  We  make  a  note  of  this,  which  we  shall  find 
afterwards  of  great  use  in  taking  other  photographs  of  buildings 
or  in  copying  pictures;  that  is,  that  for  such  work  the  ground- 
glass,  which  occupies  the  place  of  the  plate,  should  be  parallel  to 
the  surface  which  we  wish  to  copy.  This  is  one  of  the  uses  of 
the  swing-back  of  the  camera;  other  uses  of  that  as  well  as  of 
the  side-swing  we  shall  refer  to  later. 

We  have  now  to  decide  upon  the  stop  or  diaphragm  to  use  in 
the  lens.  We  will  not  here  discuss  the  different  uses  o£  the  stops, 
leaving  that  for  a  subsequent  chapter,  and  will  select  a  stop  which 
is  marked  f  32,  which  in  this  case,  as  the  focus  of  the  lens  is  eight 
inches,  is  a  stop  measuring  a  quarter  of  an  inch  in  diameter.  We 


FIRST    EXPOSURES.  21 

insert  the  stop,  put  the  cap  upon  the  lens  and  the  plate-holder  in 
its  place  all  ready  to  draw  the  slide  and  make  the  exposure. 
Before  making  the  real  exposure,  however,  we  shall  practice  a 
little  on  counting  the  time  and  on  taking  off  the  cap. 

u  Now  will  each  one  of  you  please  take  off  the  cap  and  count 
the  time,  and  at  the  end  of  the  time  replace  the  cap  as  neatly  and 
carefully  as  you  can.  "We  will  say  that  the  time  that  we  are  going 
to  give  to  the  exposure  is  six  seconds.  Now  let  the  first  one  try.'* 

"  Well,  you  made  the  mistakes  that  are  usually  made  in  these 
operations.  You  removed  the  cap  gently,  which  was  all  right, 
but  after  you  had  taken  it  from  the  lens  you  held  it  for  nearly 
a  second  directly  in  front  of  the  lens  and  then  gradually  lowered 
it.  Of  course,  while  the  cap  was  in  front  of  the  lens  it  obscured 
so  much  of  the  landscape  and  delayed  the  exposure.  Again, 
your  time  instead  of  being  six  seconds  was  only  three  seconds. 
Now  let  the  next  boy  try." 

"  That  was  a  little  better  in  one  respect  and  worse  in  another. 
You  came  nearer  to  the  time,  your  exposure  was  five  seconds,  but 
you  were  too  hasty  in  removing  the  cap  and  you  shook  the  camera 
perceptibly.  Now  if  the  building  of  which  you  were  taking  a 
picture  should  shake  a  little  like  that  it  would  not  make  much 
difference,  as  long  as  it  did  not  shake  the  plate.  But  when  you 
shake  the  camera,  and  with  it  the  plate,  that  blurs  the  picture  on 
the  plate  beyond  redemption.  We  will  now  let  the  other  boy  try 
and  see  how  well  he  performs  these  two  operations." 

"  That  was  very  much  better ;  the  cap  was  taken  off  gently  but 
firmly,  and  as  soon  as  removed  it  was  brought  down  out  of  sight 
without  jarring  the  camera  in  the  slightest.  But  you  have  counted 
your  time  too  slow,  and  instead  of  six  seconds  you  have  made  it 


22  THE    AMATEUR    PHOTOGRAPHER'S    HAND    BOOK. 

twelve  seconds.  Two  of  you  counted  the  time  and  one  of  you 
guessed,  and  none  of  you  were  right.  Of  course,  you  could  use 
a  watch  with  which  to  count  your  time,  but  you  would  not  always 
get  it  exact  in  that  way,  especially  if  you  wanted  one  or  two  sec- 
onds, as  part  of  the  time  would  go  by  after  you  removed  the  cap 
until  you  could  notice  the  face  of  your  watch.  We  have,  how- 
ever, one  very  reliable  way  of  counting  seconds  or  parts  of  seconds. 
Suppose  we  wanted  six  seconds.  We  commence  to  say  the  mo- 
ment the  cap  is  off  the  lens,  *  one-thousand  one,  one-thousand 
two,  one-thousand  three,  one-thousand  four,  one-thousand  five, 
one-thousand  six.'  Just  as  we  say  the  six  we  replace  the  cap  on 
the  lens.  Suppose  we  wanted  two  and  one-half  seconds,  then  we 
would  say,  'one-thousand  one,  one-thousand  two,  one-thou' — 
and  cap  the  lens.  Counting  in  that  way,  you  will  have  no  diffi- 
culty in  counting  any  time  from  one-half  second  to  a  minute.  It 
is  something  you  need  to  remember." 

"  Now  we  are  all  ready  to  take  the  picture,  and  we  lay  the 
focusing  cloth  over  the  camera  so  that  it  covers  every  thing  but 
the  lens ;  we  draw  the  slide,  the  front  slide  of  our  plate-holder, 
removing  it  entirely  from  the  holder,  keeping  the  camera  at  the 
same  time  covered  with  the  focusing  cloth.  Then  we  look  to  see 
that  the  camera  is  perfectly  still,  and,  removing  the  cap,  count  our 
time,  and  the  exposure  is  made;  the  cap  being  replaced  at  the 
end  of  the  time.  Now  remember  about  the  slide  of  the  plate- 
holder  when  we  replace  it,  we  must  have  the  dark,  side  out,  which 
will  show  us  that  there  is  an  exposed  plate  in  that  side  of  the  plate- 
holder;  also  when  we  put  it  in  the  holder  we  must  be  careful  to 
put  it  in  squarely,  not  one  corner  at  a  time,  but  to  put  it  in  so 
that  the  whole  end  of  the  slide  will  at  the  same  time  enter  the 


FIRST   EXPOSURES.  23 

slit  of  the  holder.  If  not  done  in  this  way,  light  will  be  likely  to 
get  in  the  holder  and  fog  the  plate.  When  we  get  back  to  our 
dark-room  and  have  emptied  a  plate-holder  you  can  hold  one  of 
them  up  to  the  light  and  see  how  the  insertion  of  one  corner  of 
the  slide  in  the  slit  opens  the  shutter  along  the  whole  width  so 
that  you  can  see  the  light  plainly  through  it." 

Our  young  friend  here  removes  the  plate-holder  which  he 
places  carefully  in  the  box  holding  the  others,  and  proceeds  with 
his  camera  to  walk  on  and  take  other  views. 

"  Wait  a  moment,  there  is  something  and  a  very  important 
thing  which  you  have  forgotten.  Your  plate-holder  will  show 
on  which  side  is  the  exposed  plate,  but  suppose  you  go  on  now 
and  take  another  picture  and  then,  as  you  have  this  time,  put  the 
plate-holder  away  without  making  a  memorandum,  how  shall 
you  be  able  to  tell  on  which  side  is  either  particular  plate  or  ex- 
posure which  you  have  made?" 

"  Yes,  you  see  you  have  forgotten  to  make  the  proper  entry  in 
your  note  book,  which  we  will  now  proceed  to  do  as  follows: 
This  was  plate-holder  B  in  your  note  book,  therefore,  opposite 
that  letter,  you  mark  now  in  the  proper  column  the  time,  six 
seconds ;  in  the  next  column  the  size  of  the  stop,  f 32 ;  the  next 
column  we  will  write  10:30  B,  which  will  stand  for  bright;  then 
the  subject,  the  church  by  the  river,  and  the  date. 

While  we  are  making  these  minutes  in  the  note  book  the  two 
younger  boys  had  gone  ahead  with  their  cameras.  When  we 
overtook  them  we  found  them  both  focusing  on  a  very  pretty 
little  cottage  under  the  trees.  They  had  both  selected  a  good 
position,  but  were  having  some  difficulty  in  deciding  upon  the 
proper  object  to  get  their  focus  upon.  One  had  focused  upon 


24  THE    AMATEUR    PHOTOGRAPHER'S    HAND    BOOK. 

the  trunk  of  a  tree  which  stood  about  half  way  between  himself, 
and  the  cottage,  though  a  little  off  to  one  side.  He  had  chosen 
this  to  focus  upon  because  the  sun  was  shining  upon  it,  and  it 
looked  so  clear  on  his  ground-glass.  The  cottage  itself  was  very 
much  out  of  focus,  and  it  was  very  indistinct  and  somewhat 
blurred.  As  the  cottage  was  the  principal  part  of  the  picture 
he  readily  saw  that  that  should  be  the  object  to  show  the  most 
distinctly  upon  the  ground-glass.  The  other  boy  had  focused 
correctly  upon  the  cottage,  but  did  not  notice  that  his  camera 
was  not  level,  so  that  in  the  picture  the  cottage  seemed  to  be 
sliding  down  hill.  This  is  one  of  the  first  points  always  to  be 
noticed,  that  the  camera  must  be  level  so  that  the  line  of  the 
horizon  as  shown  upon  the  ground-glass  may  be  level.  Both  of 
the  boys  had  to  use  their  sliding  fronts  so  as  to  bring  into  their 
pictures  the  tops  of  the  trees  which  were  close  to  the  cottage. 
They  decided  to  use  the  same  size  of  stop  as  that  which  they  had 
just  seen  used  before. 

"  Now  our  first  picture,  the  one  of  the  church,  which  was  out 
in  the  bright  sunlight,  was  made  with  an  exposure  of  six  seconds, 
but  in  this  case  we  are  taking  a  picture  of  a  house  of  a  light  drab 
color,  under  and  shaded  by  trees.  The  shadows  of  these  trees, 
you  will  notice,  fall  across  the  roof  of  the  house  and  also  nearly 
cover  one  side.  From  this  view  there  will  be  very  much  less 
light  thrown  into  the  camera  than  from  the  previous  one,  and 
therefore  we  must  give  it  longer  time.  We  cannot  tell  the  exact 
time  to  give  for  a  view  of  this  kind.  It  would  not  be  easy  for 
any  one  to  tell  the  exact  time  required  for  any  particular  kind  of 
plate.  There  are  no  exact  rules  to  give  in  determining  correctly 
the  time  required  for  different  views.  We  have  to  learn  this  by 


FIRST   EXPOSURES.  25 

experience,  keeping  a  careful  record  of  every  exposure  and  giv- 
ing all  the  particulars,  and  before  you  are  aware  of  it  you  will 
learn  accurately  about  the  correct  time  to  give  for  every  ex- 
posure. The  time  of  the  year,  the  time  of  day  and  the  state  of 
the  atmosphere,  all  of  these  govern  the  time  for  exposing  the 
plate. 

In  October,  November  and  December,  January,  February  and 
March,  the  quantity  of  the  light  is  very  much  less  than  in  the 
other  six  months  of  the  year,  the  greatest  amount  of  light  be- 
ing, of  course,  at  the  time  of  the  year  when  the  sun  is  the  highest 
in  the  sky.  As  these  are  comparatively  slow  plates  which  we 
are  using,  we  shall  try  to  give  them  enough  and  aim  rather  to 
give  a  little  longer  time  than  we  think  may  be  necessary,  rather 
than  to  run  the  risk  of  giving  too  short  a  time.  If  the  exposure 
is  too  short  no  amount  of  developing  will  bring  out  a  picture  on 
the  plate  when  there  is  none  there;  but  if  the  time  is  a  little  too 
long  we  are  able  by  care  in  developing  to  bring  out  a  picture  all 
right.  In  this  case,  therefore,  suppose  we  make  the  time  12 
seconds,  which  would  certainly  not  be  at  all  too  long  if  we  were 
aiming  to  make  a  picture  simply  of  the  shadows  alone.  There 
is  an  old  saying,  which  is  growing  to  be  an  adage  in  photogra- 
phy, 'Expose  for  the  shadows  and  let  the  lights  take  care  of 
themselves.'  It  is  a  good  rule  to  follow." 

"  Now,  do  not  forget  to  cover  your  camera  carefully  with 
your  focusing  cloth  before  you  draw  the  slide  from  the  plate- 
holder.  It  may  be  that  your  plate-holder  is  so  tight  and  fits  so 
closely  to  the  camera  that  no  light  can  possibly  get  between 
them,  but  there  is  danger  of  the  plate-holder  or  camera  warping  a 
little,  or  a  little  dust  or  dirt  getting  in  to  prevent  the  two  fitting 


26  THE    AMATEUR   PHOTOGRAPHER'S   HAND   BOOK. 

together  closely  and  thus  leaving  a  space  for  the  light  to  get  in, 
so  it  is  always  safer  to  cover  the  camera  with  your  focusing  cloth, 
and  avoid  the  risk  of  the  light  fogging  your  plates." 

"Now  you  are  all  ready;  be  sure  to  count  your  time  care- 
fully." 

"That  was  right,  you  gave  the  time  just  right  and  you  were 
very  careful  about  replacing  the  caps  on  the  lenses.  Before  you 
replace  the  slide  remember  about  putting  it  squarely  into  the 
plate-holder  and  with  the  dark  side  out." 

"  O,  one  of  you  forgot  to  take  out  the  slide,  so  of  course,  you 
have  no  picture  on  the  plate  and  you  will  have  to  try  yours  over 
again." 

"While  he  is  getting  ready  to  make  the  exposure  again,  Henry, 
who  has  the  4x5  camera,  has  taken  out  his  plate-nolder  and 
placed  it  in  his  focusing  cloth,  and  goes  across  the  road,  where 
he  sits  down  under  the  deep  shadow  of  some  bushes.  Pretty 
soon  he  comes  back,  and  says  that  there  must  be  something  the 
matter  with  his  camera  as  he  had  just  looked  at  the  plate  and 
there  was  not  the  slightest  sign  of  a  picture  on  it.  He  had  made 
two  mistakes.  He  supposed  that  exposing  the  plate  for  a  pic- 
ture made  some  change  in  the  appearance  of  the  plate,,  and  he 
also  supposed  that  he  could  look  at  this  plate  in  the  shade  with- 
out danger  of  injuring  it.  The  plate  which  has  been  exposed 
for  a  picture  does  not  differ  in  appearance  from  a  plate  which 
has  not  been  exposed;  the  picture  on  the  plate  is  only  brought 
out  afterwards  by  the  development.  And  the  moment  he  drew 
the  slide  to  examine  the  plate  in  the  shade,  that  very  moment 
the  light  fogged  his  plate.  The  plate  can  only  be  looked  at  in 
the  dark  room  by  the  aid  of  a  dark  lantern.  "We  mean,  of  course? 


FIRST   EXPOSURES.  27 

a  plate  which  has  not  been  developed.  This  is  not  the  first  time 
that  we  have  seen  this  mistake  made,  as  once  before  we  came 
across  a  young  man  attempting  to  fill  his  plate-holders  under  the 
shade  of  some  low-branched  trees.  He  filled  his  plate-holders, 
of  course,  but  with  plates  which  he  had  ruined  in  so  doing. 

So  once  more  Henry  puts  his  plate  holder  in  the  camera,  and 
makes  another  exposure  of  the  same  view.  It  was  such  a  pretty 
view  that  he  wanted  to  use  it  for  his  first  one. 


CHAPTER  III. 

CHEMICALS. 

"OEFORE  proceeding  to  develop  the  first  plates  a  few  words 
•*-*  on  chemicals  will  not  be  out  of  place.  The  chemicals 
which  we  should  recommend  for  the  beginner  are: 

Sulphite  soda  crystals,  one  Ib. 

Carbonate  soda  crystals,  pure,  one  or  two  Ibs. 

Powdered  borax,  one-half  Ib. 

Hyposulphite  soda,  five  or  ten  Ibs. 

Bromide  potassium,  one  oz. 

H.  &  F.  hydrochinon,  one  oz. 

Carbonate  potash,  one-half  Ib. 

Phosphate  soda,  one-half  Ib. 

Caustic  soda  sticks,  one  oz. 

One  Ib.  concentrated  ammonia. 

Chloride  gold  and  sodium,  30  grain  vial. 

Nitric  acid,  C.  P.,  one  Ib. 

Nitrate  silver  crystals,  one  oz. 

Ferricyanide  potassium,  two  ozs.     (Red  prussiate  of  potash). 

Citrate  iron  and  ammonia,  2  ozs. 

Chloride  ammonium,  4  ozs. 

Meta  bisulphite  potash,  one  oz. 

Bisulphite  soda,  4  ozs. 

Yellow  prussiate  potash,  4  ozs. 


CHEMICALS.  29 

The  above  are  all  the  chemicals  that  will  be  required  in  devel- 
oping, fixing  and  toning,  and  in  making  blue  and  silver  printing 
paper.  To  these  might  be  added,  as  the  beginner  will  wish  to 
try  developing  with  that,  one  oz.  pyrogallic  acid. 

All  of  the  above,  with  the  exception  of  hyposulphite  soda, 
should  be  either  "  pure  "  or  "  chemically  pure,"  which  is  usually 
designated  on  packages  as  C.  P.  He  should  also  procure  about 
one-half  dozen  16  oz.  bottles  with  glass  stoppers;  one-half  dozen 
•£  gall,  bottles  with  rubber  corks ;  one  gallon  bottle  for  hypo. 

Some  scales  that  will  weigh  grains. 

The  sulphite  soda  crystals,  as  well  as  the 'ammonia,  should 
be  kept  in  a  cool  and  dry  place,  and  tightly  corked,  as  they  both 
deteriorate  unless  carefully  preserved.  The  ammonia  bottle 
must  have  a  glass  stopper, 

He  will  also  need  certainly  one  glass  graduate,  a  four  ounce, 
and  it  will  be  a  great  convenience  to  have  also  -a  number  of 
other  sizes,  a  minim  holding  sixty  drops,  or  one  dram,  a  one 
ounce,  two  ounces,  and  either  an  eight  or  a  sixteen  ounce.  These 
are  marked  in  drams  and  ounces,  eight  drams  to  the  ounce. 

Also,  one  or  more  glass  trays  of  the  proper  size  for  developing 
the  plates,  and  one  or  two  japanned  trays  for  fixing.  Small 
trays  for  4x5  plates  will  always  be  found  convenient,  as  requiring 
less  solution  for  developing  plates  of  that  size  or  smaller. 

It  will  be  a  great  convenience  and  save  much  time  if  the  above 
bottles  are  graduated  as  soon  as  they  have  been  washed  clean. 
To  graduate  them,  take  a  strip  of  white  paper  about  one-half 
inch  wide  and  paste  it  on  the  side  of  the  bottle  reaching  from 
the  bottom  to  the  top.  When  this  is  dry  (we  will  say  that  it  is 
a  gallon  bottle  for  the  fixer  hypo.)  pour  into  the  bottle  8  ounces 


30 

of  water,  and  when  it  is  perfectly  still  mark  the  level  of  the  water 
on  the  paper  with  a  pencil  and  against  that  mark  8  ounces ;  then 
pour  in  another  eight  ounces,  and  mark  that  level,  and  so  on 
until  the  bottle  is  filled.  The  marks  on  the  paper  from  bottom 
to  the  top  read  8,  16,  24,  and  so  on  to  128  ounces,  or  more,  if 
the  bottle  holds  a  little  over  a  gallon.  The  advantage  of  thus 
marking  the  bottles  will  be  seen  when  we  prepare  our  solution 
of  hyposulphite  soda  in  this  bottle.  In  place  of  using  the  strip 
of  paper,  the  markings  may  be  laid  directly  on  the  glass  with 
black  varnish,  applied  with  a  fine-pointed  brush.  This  has  the 
advantage  over  paper  that  it  will  not  wash  off.  All  of  the  smaller 
bottles  should  be  marked  in  the  same  way,  marking  a  16  ounce 
bottle  in  ounces. 

Weigh  out  two  pounds  hyposulphite  soda,  and  one  ounce 
bisulphite  soda,  and  pour  it  into  the  graduated  gallon  bottle ;  then 
pour  fresh  water  into  the  bottle  until  it  rises  to  the  96  ounce 
mark.  This  when  dissolved  will  give  a  solution  of  hypo,  in  the 
proportion  of  one  ounce  hypo,  to  three  ounces  water.  This  is 
stronger  than  is  usually  used  for  a  fixer,  and  should  be  reduced 
when  wanted,  taking  one  part  hypo,  and  one  part  water,  which 
reduces  it  for  the  fixer  to  the  proportion  of  one  to  six.  The 
bisulphite  of  soda  is  added  to  keep  the  solution  clear  while  in  use. 

As  there  are  generally  plenty  of  old  bottles  around  a  house,  it 
will  be  a  good  plan  to  take  one  or  two  holding  a  quart,  and  after 
thoroughly  cleaning  them,  fill  them  half  full  with  the  above 
hypo,  solution,  filtering  it  as  described  at  the  close  of  this  chap- 
ter, and  then  filling  the  bottles  with  water.  These  bottles  should 
then  be  labeled: 

Hypo,  filtered  for  use. 


CHEMICALS.  31 

"We  will  now  proceed  to  make  stock  solutions  of  our  different 
chemicals.  First  we  will  make  our  solution  of  sulphite  soda: 
We  take  1200  grains  of  the  crystals  and  put  them  in  one  of  our 
16  oz.  bottle,  adding  water  to  make  15  oz.  We  will  label  this 
on  the  outside: 

Stock  solution. 

Sulphite  soda  crystals. 

One  dram  equals  ten  grains. 

As  there  are  1200  grains  contained  in  the  15  oz.,  which  are 
equal  to  120  drams,  of  course  one  dram  will  contain  exactly  10 
grains.  Then  we  take  our  carbonate  soda  crystals,  weigh  out 
1200  grains  and  put  them  in  a  16  oz.  bottle,  to  which  we  add 
water  to  make  15  oz.  and  label  this: 

Stock  solution. 
Carbonate  soda  crystals. 
One  dram  equals  ten  grains. 

We  do  the  same  with  our  carbonate  potash,  making  a  solution 
of  1200  grains  to  15  oz.  water,  one  dram  of  which  will  equal  10 
grains.  We  also  do  the  same  with  our  phosphate  soda.  It  will 
be  well  also  to  purchase  about  one  dozen  common  4  oz.  bottles 
with  corks,  which  will  be  convenient  for  holding  small  quantities 
of  different  solutions  that  will  not  be  needed  in  large  quantities. 
In  one  of  the  4  oz.  bottles  place  20  grains  bromide  potassium 
and  add  water  to  equal  10  drams  and  mark  this,  •£  dram  equals 
one  grain.  In  using  bromide  of  potassium,  which  is  used  very 
largely  as  a  restrainer  in  development,  it  is  essential  that  the 
solution  should  always  be  fresh  and  for  that  reason  only  a  small 
quantity  should  be  prepared  at  a  time.  The  writer  makes  it  a 


32  THE   AMATEUR   PHOTOGRAPHER'S   HAND   BOOK. 

point  never  to  prepare  more  of  the  bromide  solution  than  is  re- 
quired for  use  in  a  few  days.  It  has  been  found  that  bromide 
potassium  solution  rapidly  deteriorates,  and  if  it  has  been  kept 
sometime  it  has  no  effect  as  a  restrainer.  With  the  above  stock 
solutions  the  amateur  will  be  able  to  prepare  fresh  nearly  all  the 
ordinary  developers,  using  hydrochinon  or  pyrogallic  acid  at  a 
moment's  notice,  the  hydrochinon  and  pyro  being  added  dry. 
For  example  the  following  is  a  standard  pyro  developer  greatly 
used  by  professional  photographers, 

ISTo.  1. 

Pyrogallic  acid,  1  oz. 

Sulphite  soda  crystals,  4  oz.;  (437^  grains  to  the  ounce.) 

Water  to  make  32  oz. 

No.  2. 

Carbonate  soda  crystals,  4  oz. 

Water  to  make  32  oz. 

Of  this  use  equal  parts  Nos.  1  and  2.  Now,  suppose  we  require 
a  four  ounce  developing  solution  for  a  5x8  plate:  to  make  this  we 
should  take  two  ounces  each  of  the  above  Nos.  1  and  2,  and  we 
wish  to  ascertain  exactly  how  many  grains  of  each  of  the  above 
chemicals  there  are  in  our  four  ounces  of  mixed  solution.  To  ascer- 
tain this  is  very  simple.  We  see  that  in  taking  two  ounces  of  No. 
1,  we  take  1-16  of  the  No.  1,  which  will  contain  1-16  ounce  of 
pyro  that  equals  27£  grains,  4-16  ounces  sulphite  soda,  that 
equals  109  grains;  and  of  the  No  2,  4-16  ounces  carbonate  soda, 
equals  109  grains.  Now  if  the  amateur  should  want  to  prepare 
the  above  developer,  it  would  not  be  economical  for  him  to  pre- 
pare it  as  described  by  the  formula.  One  ounce  pyrogallic  acid 


CHEMICALS.  83 

would  lose  much  of  its  strength  long  before  he  had  time  to  use  the 
quantity  dissolved.  Fyrogallic  acid  always  acts  better  in  the 
developer  when  perfectly  fresh,  and  the  only  way  to  have  it  per- 
fectly fresh  is  to  mix  it  when  wanted.  Now  as  we  know  the 
quantity  of  each  chemical  used  in  our  four  ounce  solution,  we 
can  prepare  it  perfectly  fresh  in  this  way.  We  need  109  grains 
sulphite  soda,  so  we  take  down  our  stock  solution  and  pour  into 
our  graduate  11  drams,  which  we  know  to  contain  110  grains, 
(this  is  near  enough  to  109.)  We  also  pour  into  the  same  grad- 
uate 11  drams  of  the  carbonate  soda  crystals  solution,  giving  us 
110  grains  of  that,  to  which  we  add  water  to  make  the  whole  up 
to  four  ounces.  We  now  carefully  weigh  out  2TJ  grains  of  pyro, 
which,  on  being  poured  into  the  graduate,  is  instantly  dis- 
solved, and  the  developing  solution  is  ready  for  use.  This  formula 
which  we  have  given  above  as  an  illustration,  is  very  strong  in 
pyro,  and  it  would  be  better  for  the  amateur  to  weaken  it  with  an 
equal  quantity  of  water  if  he  wishes  to  use  it  for  developing  plates. 
To  return  once  more  to  our  stock  solutions.  After  they  have 
been  entirely  dissolved  they  should  be  filtered.  To  filter  our 
bottle  of  sulphite  soda  we  will  take  another  large,  clean  bottle 
and  place  our  funnel  in  it,  then  take  a  small  wad  of  fine  cotton 
wool  and  wet  thoroughly  under  the  tap,  until  it  is  wet  all  through, 
then  press  this  cotton  into  the  bottom  of  the  funnel  and  slowly 
pour  upon  it  the  contents  of  our  ;stock  bottle.  This  should  fil- 
ter through  slowly,  and  after  it  is  all  filtered,  the  solution  should 
be  returned  to  the  original  stock  bottle,  which  has  been  pre- 
viously thoroughly  cleaned.  In  the  same  way  the  other  solutions 
should  be  filtered.  Of  course  the  same  cotton  must  not  be  used 
for  filtering  any  other  substance,  and  the  funnel  should  be  very 


34  THE   AMATEUR   PHOTOGRAPHER'S   HAND   BOOK. 

clean  before  being  used  on  any  other  chemical.  One  caution 
must  be  observed  throughout:  the  hyposulphite  soda  must  be 
kept  apart  from  all  other  chemicals,  and  no  bottle  that  has  con- 
tained any  hypo,  should  ever  be  used  for  any  other  purpose. 

In  regard  to  filtering  through  cotton  wool,  we  have  known 
many  who  had  trouble  in  getting  the  cotton  wet  enough  to  let 
the  solution  filter  through  easily.  "We  use  just  enough  cotton  to 
be  held  in  the  neck  of  the  funnel  and  stay  there  without  being 
forced  through;  to  wet  it,  we  lay  it  on  the  fingers  of  one  hand, 
patting  it  with  the  other  hand,  while  the  water  is  running  on  it; 
then  transfer  it,  upside  down,  to  the  other  hand,  and  wet  and  pat 
the  other  side.  This  gets  it  thoroughly  wet,  when  the  water  is 
partly  squeezed  out  of  it,  and  it  can  be  placed  in  the  funnel 
pressing  it  partly  into  the  neck,  so  that  the  solution  will  not  flow 
under  it  when  poured  in. 

The  cotton  wool  does  well  for  all  ordinary  filtering,  but  for 
very  nice  work,  filtering  paper  is  used.  This  usually  comes  cut 
in  round  discs  from  six  to  ten  inches  in  diameter.  To  use  it,  the 
paper  is  folded  through  the  middle  and  then  folded  again,  when 
it  can  be  opened  like  an  inverted  cone  and  laid  in  the  funnel. 
There  is  another  way  of  folding  the  paper,  (in  use  by  chemists,) 
bending  it  out  and  in,  the  corrugations  largely  increasing  the 
filtering  surface,  the  manner  of  doing  which  cannot  very  well  be 
described  without  numerous  illustrations. 

In  weighing  chemicals  always  lay  them  on  a  clean*  sheet  of 
paper  in  the  scale  pan,  and,  where  a  few  grains  only  are  to  be 
weighed,  balance  this  paper  with  an  equal  weight  in  the  other 
pan. 

In  preparing  solutions,  weigh  or  measure  every  ehemical 


CHEMICALS.  35 

carefully.  Formulas  are  not  prepared  by  guess-work ;  when  cer- 
tain numbers  of  grains  or  ounces  are  given,  they  mean  exactly 
those  quantities.  Carelessness  here  is  simply  the  forerunner  of 
failure. 

"We  knew  a  gentleman  who  spent  a  whole  summer  photograph- 
ing, and  gave  it  up  because  nearly  every  negative  he  made  was 
poor.  He  had  neither  graduating  glass  to  measure  his  fluids, 
nor  scales  to  weigh  his  chemicals,  mixing  everything  by  guess. 
If  by  happy  guessing  he  was  able  to  secure  a  tolerable  negative, 
he  was  quite  likely  to  let  it  spoil  through  insufficient  washing 
after  the  hypo.  bath. 


CHAPTER  IV. 

DEVELOPING  THE  PLATE. 

TTTE  will  now  proceed  to  the  dark-room  to  develop  the  plates 
which  we  have  already  exposed.  For  this  purpose  we  have 
the  choice  of  numerous  formulas  in  which  the  acting  developing 
agents  are  pyrogallic  acid  or  hydrochinon.  Of  these  for  our  first 
lesson  we  will  take  the  hydrochinon,  as  that  offers  less  difficulties 
for  the  beginner.  Before  closing  the  door  of  our  dark-room  we 
will  mix  the  developing  solution.  The  following  formula  is 
easily  prepared,  and  we  have  always  found  it  to  work  well: 

Hydrochinon,  25  grains. 

Sulphite  soda  crystals,  125  grains. 

Carbonate  soda  crystals,  125  grains. 

Phosphate  soda  granular,  60  grains. 

Water,  to  make  4  ounces. 

To  prepare  this,  we  take  first  from  our  stock  solution  of  sul- 
phite of  soda  twelve  and  one-half  drams,  which  gives  us  125 
grains ;  we  then  measure  out  twelve  and  one-half  drams  carbon- 
ate soda  and  six  drams  of  phosphate  soda,  which  we  add  to  the 
sulphite  soda,,  and  add  water  to  make  the  whole  up  to  four 
ounces.  We  pour  this  into  a  clean  bottle,  in  which,  after  care- 
fully weighing,  we  pour  twenty-five  grains  of  hydrochinon.  We 
cork  the  bottle,  and  shake  it  occasionally  for  ten  or  fifteen  min- 
utes when  it  will  be  ready  for  use. 


DEVELOPING   THE   PLATE.  37 

This  developer,  which  is  the  same  as  our  formula  II.  (chapter 
XXII)  made  here  in  one  solution,  we  give  simply  as  an  illustra- 
tion of  the  manner  of  preparing  it  fresh.  It  will  be  more  con- 
venient to  make  it  as  in  the  formula  in  two  solutions,  which  will 
allow  you  then  to  add  more  or  less  of  either  No.  1  or  No.  2,  as 
needed  to  produce  intensity  or  detail.  The  hydrochinon  pre- 
pared as  described  in  two  solutions,  will  keep  fresh  for  months. 

"We  now  prepare  the  fixing  solution  by  pouring  two  ounces  of 
pur  stock  solution  of  hyposulphite  soda  into  the  japanned  tray,  to 
which  we  add  two  ounces  of  water,  or  simply  use  four  ounces  of 
€t  filtered  hypo,"  if  prepared  as  previously  described.  We  use  a 
black  tray  for  the  fixer  so  that  we  shall  never  be  liable  to  mistake 
it  for  one  of  the  developing  trays.  On  no  account  must  this  tray 
be  used  for  anything  else.  It  must  always  be  reserved  for  the 
hypo.,  and  no  drop  of  that  must  ever  be  allowed  to  get  into  the 
regular  developing  tray.  Remember  always  to  use  plenty  of 
fiser,  entirely  covering  the  plate. 

Before  closing  the  door  and  getting  a  plate  ready  for  develop- 
ment, we  very  carefully  wash  out  the  one  or  two  glass  graduates 
which  we  have  been  using  to  mix  our  solution.  We  wash  them 
immediately,  because  it  is  so  much  easier  to  clean  them  before  the 
few  drops  of  solution  remaining  in  the  glasses  have  time  to  dry. 
It  is  a  good  plan  to  wash  thoroughly  every  graduate  and  funnel 
or  tray  immediately  after  using  it,  remembering  always  that  it  is 
not  possible  to  keep  these  too  clean,  and  that  we  are  very  likely 
to  have  trouble  in  some  part  of  our  developing  or  toning  if  we  do 
not  use  perfectly  clean  glasses.  We  will  now  close  the  door  and 
light  our  dark-lantern.  Notice  that  there  is  no  other  light  in  the 
room  beside  the  feeble  light  given  by  our  dark -lantern,  and  when 


38 

this  light  is  out  the  room  is  absolutely  dark.  A  ray  of  daylight 
or  gas  or  lamp-light  in  the  room  might  instantly  ruin  the  plate. 
As  these  plates  which  we  are  going  to  develop  are  slow  plates, 
we  shall  develop  them  in  all  the  light  that  our  dark-lantern  will 
give  us,  and  we  especially  do  this  now  so  that  all  the  processes 
can  be  distinctly  seen.  If  the  plates  were  quicker,  or  of  a  much 
higher  sensitometer,  and  therefore  more  sensitive  to  the  light,  we 
should  carry  on  most  of  the  development  at  some  distance  from 
the  dark-lantern  where  the  light  would  be  very  weak,  or  else 
shield  them  from  the  light  by  placing  a  cover  of  dark  paper  over 
the  tray  during  the  development,  examining  the  plates  under  the 
brighter  light  for  a  few  seconds  at  a  time  to  see  how  the  develop- 
ment was  working.  Having  everything  ready,  we  now  take  one 
of  the  5x8  plates  from  our  plate-holder,  and  carefully  go  over  it 
with  a  soft  brush  to  remove  any  particles  of  dust  which  may  have 
settled  upon  the  film  during  or  after  the  exposure.  This  brush 
must  be  kept  always  free  from  dust  and  moisture,  and  in  a  clean 
place.  The  plate  being  carefully  dusted,  we  lay  it,  the  film  side 
up,  in  the  tray,  which  we  immediately  rock  to  make  the  solution 
flow  over  every  portion  of  the  plate.  If  we  notice  that  any  air 
bubbles  in  the  solution  adhere  to  the  film  we  must  touch  them  at 
once  with  a  fine,  soft  brush  or  with  the  finger.  Should  we  not  do 
this  the  bubble  would  prevent  the  developer  from  acting  on  that 
particular  spot,  and  this  would  show  as  a  transparent  spot  after 
fixing.  We  rock  the  tray  slowly  by  gently  raising  one  end  and 
then  the  other  to  allow  the  solution  to  flow  back  and  forth  over 
the  plate.  After  the  plate  has  been  in  the  solution  twenty-five 
or  thirty  seconds  the  picture  slowly  begins  to  appear.  First  the 
portions  of  the  picture  that  were  the  brightest,  or  the  high  lights 


DEVELOPING   THE   PLATE.  39 

as  they  are  called;  that  is,  first  the  sky, and  then  any  water  which 
may  reflect  the  sky  and  so  appear  bright,  and  then  the  lighter 
portions  of  the  picture.  After  that  follows  the  foliage,  the  fore- 
ground, and,  lastly,  the  shaded  parts;  we  continue  the  develop- 
ment until  we  are  able  to  see  some  details  clearly  in  the  shadows, 
and  also  until  the  picture  which  had  come  out  clearly  begins  to 
fade  away.  If  we  cannot  judge  of  the  intensity,  nor  see  the 
details  with  sufficient  clearness  in  the  tray,  the  plate  can  be  taken 
up  and  examined  by  looking  through  it  at  the  light  of  the  dark- 
lantern.  With  the  first  dozen  or  so  plates  we  shall  have  to  use 
considerable  guess-work  to  know  when  the  development  is  com- 
plete. But  after  a  little  experience  we  shall  manage  this  without 
any  trouble.  The  plate  being  now  developed,  we  have  to  wash 
it  before  placing  it  in  the  fixer  which  we  have  already  prepared. 


We  have  here  a  nickel-plated  instrument  which  we  call  our 
plate-picker.  This  you  see  is  about  six  inches  long,  one-quarter 
inch  in  diameter,  with  a  broad,  sharp  edge  at  one  end,  while  the 
other  end  is  made  narrow  and  pointed ;  the  broad  end  we  use  only 
in  the  developer,  and  the  pointed  end  is  used  only  in  the  fixer, 
the  ends  being  made  of  different  shapes  so  that  no  mistake 
can  ever  be  made.  We  take  this  tool  and  very  carefully  proceed 
to  raise  one  end  of  the  plate  by  sliding  the  edge  of  the  tool  down- 
wards at  the  end  of  the  tray  and  then  along  the  bottom  until 
we  are  sure  that  it  is  underneath  the  plate.  We  are  careful  to  do 
this  in  this  way  as  otherwise  we  might  accidentally  shove  the 
tool  against  the  film  side  of  the  plate  and  scratch  off  part  of  the 


40 

film  and  picture.  Eaising  then  the  end  of  the  plate,  we  grasp  it 
with  the  thumb  and  middle  finger  of  the  left  hand  and  raise  it 
out  of  the  tray,  the  film  side  being  towards  that  hand ;  then  take 
the  plate  with  the  thumb  and  middle  finger  of  the  right  hand,  and 
with  the  film  side  down  carry  it  to  the  tap  which  is  over  the  sink. 
With  the  left  hand  we  then  turn  on  the  water  and  wash  first  the 
side  uppermost,  which  is  the  glass  side.  Having  done  this  we 
turn  the  plate  so  that  we  can  again  take  it  in  the  left  hand,  with 
the  film  side  up ;  then  we  transfer  it  to  the  right  hand,  the  film 
side  still  being  up,  and  in  this  position  we  let  the  water  from  the 
tap  flow  over  that  side  of  the  plate.  The  reason  why  we  manip- 
ulate the  plate  in  this  way,  and  wash  the  back  side  of  it  first,  is 
that  because  when  we  first  hold  the  plate  to  the  tap,  as  it  is  in  the 
dark,  we  are  not  sure  exactly  where  the  end  of  the  tap  is,  and  if 
the  film  side  were  up  we  might  accidentally  scratch  that  against 
the  end  of  the  tap;  but,  as  the  back  of  the  plate  is  held  upper- 
most  first,  in  washing  that  side  we  learn  just  where  the  end  of  the 
tap  is,  and  so  when  we  come  to  wash  the  film  side  there  is  little 
danger  of  hitting  that  or  scratching  it.  It  is  well  also  for  another 
reason  to  get  in  the  habit  of  removing  the  plate  from  the  tray 
and  washing  it  in  this  particular  way,  because  we  shall  always 
know  then  just  where  the  film  side  of  the  plate  is  and  make  no 
mistakes  when  we  come  to  place  it  either  in  the  fixer  or  the 
washing-box. 

After  this  little  washing  under  the  tap  we  lay  the  plate 
directly  in  the  fixer  with  the  film  side  up.  After  this  is  done 
that  tray  can  be  covered  with  a  sheet  of  pasteboard  and  white 
light  be  used  in  the  dark-room.  Indeed,  after  the  plate  is  in  the 
fixer  there  is  little  danger  of  its  being  injured  by  the  gaslight. 


DEVELOPING   THE   PLATE.  41 

After  the  plate  has  been  in  the  fixer  for  five  or  six  minutes,  on 
raising  one  end  of  it,  the  white  coating  will  be  found  to  have 
nearly  disappeared.  After  it  has  entirely  disappeared,  the  plate 
should  be  left  another  minute  in  the  fixing  bath,  and  then  re- 
moved and  washed  under  the  tap  in  the  same  manner  as  when 
taken  from  the  developer;  then  after  swabbing  it  carefully  and 
gently  under  the  tap,  with  a  wad  of  soft,  fine  cotton  wool,  it  should 
be  placed  either  in  a  washing-box  or  on  a  washing-board  to  re- 
ceive a  thorough  washing.  The  washing-board  made  after  our 
plan  (chapter  Y)  will  give  a  plate  a  thorough  washing  in  twenty 
minutes,  after  which  it  should  be  swabbed  again  as  above,  and 


then  it  can  be  set  in  the  negative  rack  to  dry.  Before  we  place 
the  plate  in  the  rack  to  dry  we  will  carefully  wash  the  glass  side« 
Sometimes  there  is  a  little  emulsion  on  this  side,  and  it  is  easier 
to  wash  it  clean  now  than  when  we  get  ready  to  print.  Care 
must  be  taken  during  all  these  operations,  and  especially  during 
the  drying  of  the  plates,  that  there  shall  be  no  circulation  of 
dust  in  the  dark-room,  as  it  might  settle  on  the  plate  during  the 
drying  and  injure  it.  The  plate  will  take  from  4  to  6  hours  to 
dry,  according  to  its  size,  and  no  one  should  ever  attempt  to  hurry 


42  THE    AMATEUR    PHOTOGRAPHER'S    HAND   BOOK. 

up  the  drying  by  any  artificial  means,  as  the  result  would  very 
likely  be  disastrous.  It  is  possible  to  dry  a  plate  quickly  after 
the  washing,  by  flowing  over  it  alcohol,  and  swinging  the  plate 
in  the  air  until  dry.  We  do  not,  however,  recommend  this 
plan,  as,  unless  very  carefully  managed,  the  film  is  liable  to 
pucker. 

It  will  frequently  be  the  case  that  we  have  two  small  plates  in 
the  fixing  tray  at  the  same  time,  and  caution  should  be  observed 
in  removing  them.  The  fixing  tray  is  usually  black,  so  that  we 
may  not  see  exactly  where  the  plates  are  when  we  have  to  take 
them  out,  and  we  therefore  tilt  the  tray  a  little  to  show  the  loca- 
tion of  the  plates  and  thus  avoid  injuring  the  film  with  our  knife. 
Some  of  these  directions  may  seem  trivial,  yet  it  is  in  just  such 
little  points  that  we  must  always  exercise  care. 

Again,  the  next  time  we  use  the  old  developing  solution 
(which  can  be  used  over  and  over  again  as  long  as  it  remains 
clear),  and  for  that  purpose  pour  it  from  its  bottle  into  the  tray, 
we  must  not  return  it  until  the  bottle  has  had  a  thorough 
rinsing.  A  little  of  the  old  solution,  if  left  in  the  bottle,  would 
tend  to  rapidly  discolor  the  solution  poured  into  it. 

After  taking  the  plate  from  the  fixer  and  washing  it,  the 
fingers  which  have  touched  the  plate  must  be  thoroughly  washed. 
Our  other  two  plates  can  be  developed  in  the  same  solution  as 
the  first.  After  we  are  through  with  the  developments  we  filter 
the  developing  solution  through  fine  cotton  wool  into  a  clean 
bottle,  which  we  set  aside  for  future  use.  The  fixing  bath,  when 
we  are  through  with  it,  should  be  thrown  away  if  it  is  discolored. 
The  bisulphite  of  soda  will  keep  it  clear  for  some  time,  but  not 
indefinitely. 


CHAPTER  Y. 

THE   DARK-ROOM. 

A  FTEE  the  camera,  a  good  dark-room  is  the  most  important 
-^  matter  to  consider.  We  take  it  for  granted  that  every 
amateur  will  desire  to  develop  his  own  plates,  as  this  is  one  of 
the  most  interesting  processes  in  photography.  Many  we  know 
content  themselves  with  simply  making  the  exposures,  and  send 
their  plates  to  a  photographer  for  development  and  printing,  but 
in  so  doing  they  miss  the  greater  part  of  the  enjoyment  of  this 
beautiful  art. 

It  should,  therefore,  be  the  aim  of  every  one  to  have  his  own 
properly  appointed  dark-room ;  but,  before  explaining  how  this 
should  be  made,  we  will  show  how  one  can  get  along  with  the 
ordinary  conveniences  usually  found  in  a  home.  Any  closet 
will  answer,  if  there  is  room  in  it  for  a  broad  shelf  on  which  can 
be  placed  the  dark-lantern  and  the  trays  for  developing  and  fix- 
ing, and  a  deep  pan,  either  round  or  square.  Every  crack  or 
hole  around  the  door  where  light  gets  in  should  be  covered 
with  dark  cloth  or  paper.  There  should  be  a  pail  of  clean  water 
on  the  floor,  if  there  is  not  room  for  it  on  the  shelf,  to  use  in 
washing  the  plates  after  developing  and  fixing,  the  plate  being 
held  over  the  pan  while  water  is  poured  over  it  from  a  graduate. 
The  final  washing  after  fixing  can  be  done  in  any  convenient 
place  outside  the  dark  room,  in  the  bath-room,  or  wherever  there 
is  space  to  arrange  such  a  washing-box  as  we  describe  later. 


44  THE    AMATEUR    PHOTOGRAPHER'S    HAND    BOOK. 

For  several  months  we  washed  all  our  plates  in  an  ordinary 
set  wash-bowl,  spraying  the  water  on  the  plates  by  means  of  a 
short  tin  tube  fastened  to  the  faucet,  with  one  end  flattened  so 
as  to  make  a  broad,  thin  slit.  In  fitting  up  a  temporary  dark- 
room in  the  country  we  washed  plates  by  laying  them  in  an 
old  wash-tub  (with  hole  in  the  bottom  for  escape  of  water), 
letting  a  constant  spray  of  water  fall  on  them  from  a  garden 
sprinkler. 

All  such  arrangements  however  will  only  answer  as  a  make- 
shift until  one  succeeds  in  having  a  real  dark-room. 

The  dark-room  should,  if  possible,  be  where  it  can  be  supplied 
with  running  water,  and  waste-pipe  from  sink.  It  should  be  as 
large  as  one  can  afford  to  have  it,  at  least  six  feet  square,  eight 
by  ten  feet  if  possible.  The  door  should  be  made  light  tight,and  as 
an  additional  protection,  thick  felt  or  cloth  should  be  tacked  to 
the  door  frame  for  the  door  to  shut  against,  on  both  sides  and 
top,  and  on  the  bottom  edge  of  the  door. 

When  you  think  it  is  made  perfectly  safe  it  is  well  to  shut 
yourself  inside  of  it  in  the  dark  and  stay  there  for  some  minutes 
until  you  get  accustomed  to  the  blackness,  and  then  examine 
carefully  for  any  crack,  or  nail  holes,  or  anything  of  that  kind 
through  which  light  may  come ;  mark  these  places  and  cover  them 
securely  with  dark  paper. 

There  should  be  a  ventilator  at  the  top  of  the  room,  preferably 
over  the  dark  lantern,  with  two  angles  in  it  to  prevent  light  com- 
ing through  it  into  the  room.  A  broad  shelf  should  extend  en- 
tirely around  the  room,  about  two  feet  four  inches  from  the 
floor,  except  across  the  end  where  the  door  comes  and  where  the 
sink  is. 


THE    DARK-ROOM.  45 

Entering  the  room  from  the  door,  there  would  first  be  on  the 
shelf  at  the  left  a  space  for  a  drying-rack,  which  should  stand  on 
two  or  three  thicknesses  of  newspaper  to  catch  water  dripping 
from  negatives  while  drying.  Then  there  would  follow  next  a 
space  on  the  shelf  for  emptying  and  filling  plate-holders. 

Next  would  come  the  dark-lantern,  in  front  and  below  which 
the  developing  would  be  done,  and  then  a  space  for  tray  to  stand, 
while  fixing.  These  would  occupy  all  the  space  of  the  left-hand 
shelf.  In  the  corner  at  the  end  of  this  shelf  would  stand  the 
tank  supplying  water  for  washing  plates.  From  the  base  of  this, 
running  down  into  the  sink,  place  the  washing-board,  The  sink 
at  the  end  of  the  room  opposite  the  door  should  be  of  iron,  if 
possible,  and  about  fifteen  by  thirty  inches  in  size,  and  should 
have  a  waste-pipe,  with  trap  in  it,  emptying  into  a  drain.  Over 
the  sink  and  about  fifteen  inches  above  it  should  be  the  water 
pipe  with  two  faucets,  to  one  of  which  a  rubber  pipe  is  attached 
conveying  water  to  the  tank.  Above  this  there  should  be  a  shelf, 
slightly  inclining  downward  to  allow  the  drip  to  run  into  the 
sink,  to  hold  graduates  and  glass  funnels.  The  shelf  on  the 
right  side  of  the  room  should  have  under  it  three  or  four  deep 
drawers  for  printing  paper,  filled  plate-holders,  and  boxes  of 
plates. 

Above  this  shelf  should  be  several  shelves,  broad  enough  and 
far  enough  apart  to  hold  negatives  standing  on  edge.  There 
should  be  thin  partitions  between  these  shelves,  about  three 
inches  apart,  which  space  would  be  large  enough  to  hold  twenty- 
five  or  thirty  negatives,  separated  by  sheets  of  paper  to  prevent 
scratching.  We  think  this  is  the  most  convenient  arrange- 
ment for  keeping  negatives,  placing  them  on  these  shelves 


46  THE    AMATEUR    PHOTOGRAPHER'S   HAND   BOOK. 

in  consecutive  order,  with  the  figures  "  1  to  30,"  "31  to 
60,"  etc.,  on  the  edge  of  the  shelf  over  the  proper  apertures. 
As  numbers  are  pasted  on  each  negative,  by  storing  them 
in  this  manner  the  particular  one  wanted  can  always  be  quickly 
found. 

Returning  now  to  the  left  side  of  the  room,  underneath  a  por- 
tion of  the  shelf  on  which  the  dark-lantern  stands,  a  cupboard 
should  be  made  containing  a  shelf,  and  having  a  door,  to  hold 
developers,  solutions  which  should  be  kept  in  the  dark,  and  some 
chemicals.  Also  eighteen  inches  above  the  main  shelf  there 
chould  be  another  shelf  on  which  could  be  kept  chemicals,  kits, 
bottles  and  various  other  articles. 

A  very  essential  item  in  the  dark-room  is  a  towel.  Hands 
need  washing  every  time  they  come  in  contact  with  hyposulphite 
soda,  while  developing  or  toning.  A  drop  of  hypo,  in  either  of 
the  other  solutions  would  interfere  with  their  action.  Glasses, 
trays  and  bottles  which  have  contained  hypo,  should  be  used  for 
nothing  else. 

Everything  in  this  room  should  be  kept  in  its  regular  place 
and  handy  to  be  reached,  so  that  one  can  at  any  time  find  what 
he  wants  in  the  dark. 

If  it  is  possible,  and  it  would  add  immensely  to  the  con- 
venience of  the  room,  there  should  be  a  gas-burner  over  the 
shelf  on  the  right,  to  give  light  when  not  developing,  and  for 
use  in  making  lantern  slides,  toning,  etc. ;  from  which  also  gas 
could  be  conveyed  by  a  small  iron  pipe  or  rubber  tube  to  the 
dark-lantern. 

It  is  not  by  any  means  necessary  that  the  amateur  should 
make  his  own  dark-lantern,  as  they  can  be  obtained  ready-made 


THE   DARK-ROOM.  47 

from  any  dealer  in  photographic  supplies.  As  many,  however, 
may  prefer  a  home-made  lantern  which  will  answer  for  every 
purpose,  we  describe  the  manner  of  its  construction. 


THE  DABK  LANTEBN. 


illustration  shows  the  shape.  It  can  be  made  of  half -inch 
stuff,  eighteen  inches  high,  ten  or  twelve  inches  wide  and  deep, 
The  lower  front  (B)  is  cut  off  across  the  corner,  and  the  opening 
covered  with  two  thicknesses  of  yellow  post-office  paper,  through 
which  the  light  comes  for  the  developing.  A  door  should  be 
made  in  the  side,  with  hinges,  and  cracks  covered  to  keep  light 
from  coming  through.  A  number  of  small  holes  should  be 
bored  in  the  back,  just  above  the  bottom,  to  let  in  air  for  the 


48 

lamp.  For  light,  a  candle,  or  small  lamp  or  gas  can  be  used. 
In  the  top,  over  the  lamp,  there  should  be  a  hole  cut,  at  least  two 
inches  in  diameter,  and  a  metal  pipe  inserted  for  a  ventilator- 
This  pipe  should  have  an  elbow  in  it  to  cut  off  light.  The  top  of 
the  box  inside  should  be  lined  with  asbestos  paper  to  prevent 
any  danger  of  fire.  The  upper  front  (A)  should  be  covered  with 
two  thicknesses  of  orange  paper.  A  sheet  of  pasteboard  in  front 
of  A,  held  in  place  by  pins,  will  keep  the  light  from  the  eyes 
while  developing. 

In  the  writer's  own  lantern,  in  place  of  covering  the  beveled 
opening  with  orange  paper,  he  uses  one  sheet  of  orange  glass, 
one  of  ruby  glass,  and  one  of  ground  glass.  The  two  thicknesses 
of  orange  paper  are,  however,  quite  as  good. 

If  a  small  kerosene  lamp  is  used  in  this  lantern,  a  wire  rod  can 
be  attached  to  the  arrangement  for  raising  and  lowering  the  wick, 
§o  that  the  light  can  be  turned  up  or  down  from  the  outside. 

To  be  certain  that  the  dark-lantern  gives  a  safe  light,  it  should 
be  tested  by  exposing  half  of  a  plate  (the  other  half  being 
covered)  before  the  lantern  for  a  minute.  If  on  developing,  the 
exposed  portion  is  as  clear  as  the  unexposed  part,  the  light  is 
safe.  The  dark-room  itself  should  be  tested  in  the  same  way 
by  exposing  half  of  a  quick  plate  five  minutes.  This  is  very 
necessary,  and  may  save  the  fogging  of  innumerable  plates,  the 
cause  of  which  is  unsuspected. 


THE   DARK-ROOM. 


49 


THE   PLATE   WASHING   ARRANGEMENT. 

tank  at  the  right  should  be  made  of  zinc,  or  it  can  be 
made  of  wood,  with  two  coats  of  black  varnish  inside.  A 
tube  is  inserted  in  front  near  the  bottom,  three-eighths  of  an  inch 
opening,  to  which  a  large  zinc  or  brass  tube,  eight  to  ten  inches 
long  is  attached  at  its  center,  and  at  right  angles  to  the  smaller 
tube.  This  larger  one  is  perforated  with  one-sixteenth  inch 
holes  in  a  line  along  its  lower  side,  the  holes  being  about  three- 
sixteenths  of  an  inch  apart.  Through  these  holes  the  water 
from  the  tank  is  sprayed  upon  the  plate  placed  on  the  washing- 
board. 

In  the  place  of  the  large  zinc  or  brass  tube,  the  writer  uses  a 
joint  of  a  common  bamboo  fish-pole,  making  the  sprinkling  holes 
one-eighth  inch,  as  smaller  ones  are  apt  to  clog.  This  does  just 
as  well  as  the  metal  tube  and  is  cheaper. 


50 

The  washing-board  is  made  of  seasoned  pine,  one  inch  thick, 
ten  inches  wide,  and  as  long  as  the  sink.  A  strip  of  smooth 
wood,  three-eighths  or  one  half -inch  square,  is  nailed  along  each 
side  and  another  near  the  center  of  the  board,  so  as  to  leave  the 
two  spaces  between  them  three  and  three-eighths,  and  five  and 
one-eighth  inches  wide.  The  narrower  of  these  will  hold  plates 
three  and  one-quarter  inches  wide,  and  the  other  any  width 
up  to  five  inches.  The  board  will  be  long  enough  to  wash  at  one 
time  half  a  dozen  or  more  plates,  separating  them  by  pins. 
The  plate  first  laid  on  the  board  is  so  placed  that  the  water  falls 
upon  it  near  its  upper  end. 

This  is  a  most  effective  washing  arrangement,  plates  being 
thoroughly  washed  in  fifteen  to  twenty  minutes,  after  which  they 
are  swabbed  under  the  tap  with  cotton  wool,  and  then  placed  in 
the  rack  to  dry. 

Larger  plates,  such  as  6£x8£,  8x10  or  10x12,  can  be  washed 
with  this  same  apparatus  by  laying  them  on  the  top  of  the  strips 
or  divisions  of  the  board. 

While  we  consider  this  one  of  the  best  arrangements  for  wash- 
ing plates,  it  must  not  be  supposed  that  it  is  the  only  thing  for 
the  amateur  to  use.  Keady-made  washing-boxes  of  good  design, 
can  be  supplied  by  any  dealer  in  photographic  supplies. 


CHAPTER  VI. 

NOTES   ON   DEVELOPMENT. 

A  S  a  general  rule,  do  not  try  to  develop  very  many  plates  at 
-^*-  one  time;  it  is  better  to  develop  two  or  three  plates  in  an 
evening,  and  do  them  well,  than  to  try  a  dozen  or  more  and  be 
hurried  and  make  failures  of  many.  We  speak  from  experience. 
On  one  occasion  we  brought  in  from  a  trip  to  the  country  about 
two  dozen  plates;  some  instantaneous,  some  timed  exposures, 
and  some  detectives,  developing  them  all  in  one  evening.  The 
result  was  natural,  a  few  fairly  good  negatives,  and  some  pass- 
able, the  greater  part  poor.  This  was  several  years  ago. 

The  only  exception  to  the  rule  is  where  one  is  copying  pictures 
of  the  same  general  character,  and  using  one  kind  of  plate,  and 
knowing  by  experience  the  precise  time  for  the  exposure. 

When  you  get  ready  to  develop  a  plate  be  sure  you  know  what 
the  plate  is,  from  what  holder,  and  what  exposure  was  given. 
Then  you  will  be  prepared  to  treat  it  intelligently. 

Some  photographers  recommend  soaking  a  plate  in  a  bath  of 
cold  water  before  placing  it  in  the  developing  tray.  We  cannot 
recommend  this  mode  of  procedure,  for  the  reason  that  there  are 
apt  to  be  particles  of  vegetable  matter  in  the  water  which  are 
liable  to  cause  spots  in  the  plate.  One  spring  we  had  a  great 
many  plates  covered  with  spots,  which  we  traced  to  the  prelimi- 
nary water  bath.  Since  giving  up  this  practice  we  very  rarely 
find  a  spot  on  a  plate. 


52  THE    AMATEUR    PHOTOGRAPHER'S    HAND    BOOK. 

Immediately  after  putting  the  plate  in  the  developer  take  the 
tray  in  the  two  hands  and  rock  it  gently,  so  that  the  solution  can 
quickly  cover  the  entire  plate.  Bubbles  will  not  touch  and  adhere 
to  the  film  if  there  is  enough  solution  in  the  tray  to  rise  above 
the  plate  at  least  a  quarter  of  an  inch. 

It  is  preferable  always  to  have  the  tray  away  from  the  dark- 
lantern,  holding  it  under  the  light  only  for  a  second  or  two  at  a 
time,  to  see  how  the  development  is  proceeding;  especially  is  this 
the  case  with  all  very  rapid  plates,  which  are  so  much  more 
sensitive  to  the  light  than  slow  ones.  With  gas  giving  the  light 
in  a  dark-lantern  this  can  be  very  easily  managed,  turning  the 
light  up  or  down  as  desired. 

In  developing,  (and  this  applies  more  especially  to  pyro  solu- 
tions,) if  the  plate  has  been  over-exposed,  the  image  will  come 
up  rapidly;  if  under-exposed,  it  will  appear  very  slowly.  If  it 
shows  over-exposure  a  few  drops  of  bromide  should  be  put  in  the 
developer  at  once,  and  the  tray  rocked  to  spread  this  through  the 
solution.  Therefore  have  your  bottle  of  bromide  where  you  can 
get  it  quickly  in  the  dark. 

To  judge  when  a  plate  is  fully  developed  is  learned  only  by 
experience.  It  would  be  well  for  the  beginner  to  make  two  or 
three  exposures  of  the  same  view  with  the  same  number  of  sec- 
onds, and  develop  them  one  after  another,  giving  one  more 
time  than  the  other,  and  note  the  results  of  under  and  over- 
development. 

Do  not  use  the  fingers  to  take  plates  out  of  the  developer  or 
fixer.  If  you  cannot  get  the  instrument  previously  described  use 
a  knife  with  large  blade  at  one  end  for  the  developer,  and  small 
blade  at  the  other  end  for  the  fixer,  and  keep  both  blades  clean. 


NOTES   ON   DEVELOPMENT.  53 

Or  an  ivory  paper  cutter,  with  ends  of  different  shapes,  BO  that 
you  will  always  know  which  end  is  for  the  fixer. 

In  warm  weather  it  is  well  to  place  the  plate  before  fixing  in 
an  alum  bath  for  a  few  minutes ;  this  will  harden  the  film  and 
prevent  what  is  called  frilling  or  the  peeling  of  the  film  at  the 
edges.  Some  recommend  alum  in  the  fixing  bath.  We  have 
never  had  a  case  of  frilling,  but  old  photographers  advise  the 
alum,  and  it  is  safe  to  do  as  they  say.  In  developing  plates  in 
the  summer  we  advise  placing  the  tray  in  a  larger  japanned  or 
wooden  tray  filled  with  broken  ice. 

Whenever  it  is  possible  use  distilled  water  for  dissolving 
chemicals.  This  is  not  necessary,  however,  for  hypo.  In  winter 
collect  clean  snow,  melt  and  filter  it,  and  use  in  the  place  of 
distilled  water. 

As  a  general  rule  the  simplest  developers  are  the  best.  It  is 
safe  to  follow  the  directions  given  by  each  manufacturer  in  using 
his  plates.  It  is  for  his  interest  to  have  his  goods  produce  the 
finest  results,  and  he  would  advise  nothing  that  he  did  not  con- 
sider good.  Still,  we  think  hydrochinon  the  most  generally 
satisfactory  of  all  developers  for  every  kind  of  plates. 

Sometimes  in  parts  of  the  plates,  the  developing  seems  to 
stop,  some  of  the  shadows  will  remain  white.  This  may  mean 
insufficient  exposure,  which  is  not  easily  remedied.  In  many 
cases,  however,  it  will  help  matters  if  the  solution  is  returned  to 
the  graduate,  and  then  slowly  poured  on  the  spot,  repeating  this 
if  necessary.  Or  a  little  more  of  the  alkali  may  be  added  to  the 
solution.  If  too  much  is  added  it  may  produce  fog.  For  soda 
developer  it  will  be  well  to  keep  on  hand  a  saturated  solution  of 
carbonate  soda,  made  by  dissolving  three  ounces  in  five  ounces 


54  THE   AMATEUR   PHOTOGRAPHER'S    HAND    BOOK. 

of  hot  water.  A  few  drops  of  this  may  be  sufficient  to  hasten 
development  and  bring  out  detail.  A  saturated  solution  is  a  so- 
lution containing  all  of  the  solid  that  the  water  will  dissolve. 

The  active  element  in  the  developer,  the  pyro,  hydrochinon 
etc.,  gives  contrast  and  intensity;  the  alkali  gives  detail  and 
harmony,  and  hastens  the  development. 

A  developer  in  which  equal  parts  of  Nos.  1  and  2  are  used, 
works  better  in  winter  than  summer.  In  warm  weather  it  is 
well  to  weaken  somewhat  the  solution  and  especially  the  No.  2, 
which  is  the  alkali,  remembering  always  that  heat  accelerates, 
while  cold  retards,  development. 

In  detective  views,  and  generally  in  instantaneous  work, 
fresh  solutions  work  best.  With  instantaneous  exposures,  we 
think  that  decidedly  the  best  negatives  are  obtained  by  first 
soaking  the  plate  a  few  minutes  in  a  very  weak  solution  of  sal 
soda  or  carbonate  of  potash,  or  both  combined.  This  has  the 
effect  of  softening  the  film.  After  this  it  is  best  to  commence 
with  a  weak  developer  which  can  be  changed  for  a  stronger 
solution  after  the  details  have  appeared.  There  should  be  no 
attempt  to  develop  such  exposures  quickly,  but  give  them  plenty 
of  time.  Old  developer  can  be  used  for  long  exposures.  In 
winter  views,  where  there  is  strong  contrast,  use  less  of  No.  1 
and  give  plenty  of  time  to  the  developing.  If  in  any  view  there 
is  great  want  of  contrast  add  caustic  soda  in  developing  with 
hydrochinon  to  make  it  act  quickly. 

If  in  doubt  as  to  the  exposure  the  plate  has  received,  it  is  safer 
to  begin  developing  with  a  weak  solution  when  using  pyro.  If 
the  plate  is  known  to  be  over-exposed  let  it  soak  first  in  the  pyro 
solution  a  few  minutes,  and  then  add  the  alkali  slowly.  Or  if 


NOTES  ON   DEVELOPMENT.  55 

the  exposure  is  known  to  be  too  short  soak  first  in  the  alkali,  and 
add  the  pyro  slowly  till  the  development  is  complete.  Hydro- 
chin  on  will  act  quite  as  fast  as  pyro  if  it  is  used  without  a  pre- 
servative like  sulphite  of  soda. 

A  good  motto  for  the  dark-room  would  be  "  Keep  graduates, 
funnels  and  trays,  perfectly  clean,  and  don't  hurry." 

In  developing  plates,  especially  very  rapid  ones,  it  is  always 
best  to  have  only  one  in  the  tray  at  a  time.  Of  course,  if  the 
tray  is  only  large  enough  to  hold  one  plate  no  one  will  try  to  de- 
velop two  in  it  at  once,  but  you  may  some  time  have  a  number 
of  small  plates  to  develop,  and  may  think  it  economical  of  time 
to  place  two  in  the  tray,  side  by  side.  If  both  are  quick  plates 
they  may  have  had  different  exposures,  and  one  may  develop 
much  faster  than  the  other,  so  that  when  you  remove  them  from 
the  dark,  (where  the  development  is  begun)  to  place  them 
under  the  lantern,  one  of  them  may  be  so  nearly  finished  that 
you  may  wish  to  keep  it  there  while  you  watch  the  details  coin- 
ing out;  and  at  the  same  time  in  the  other  the  image  may  be 
only  just  beginning  to  appear,  in  which  case,  while  the  light 
from  the  lantern  will  not  injure  the  one  nearly  developed,  it  may 
slightly  fog  the  other. 

After  the  plates  have  been  placed  in  the  fixer,  a  dim  lamp  or 
gas  light  will  not  injure  them.  The  writer  was  developing  a 
number  of  plates  and  had  them  all,  as  he  supposed,  developed 
and  fixed,  and,  after  placing  them  on  the  washing-board,  turned 
up  the  gas,  when  he  was  surprised  to  find  that  one  had  not  been 
fixed  at  all.  He  took  it  out  of  the  wash  and  placed  it  in  the 
hypo,  without  changing  the  light,  and  the  plate  fixed  as  well  as 
any  of  them. 


56 

If  a  negative  is  over-intense,  it  may  be  due  to  too  strong  a  de- 
veloper, or  to  too  long  development.  Thinness  may  be  caused 
by  either  over-exposure  or  under-development.  As  such  acci- 
dents are  always  liable  to  happen,  the  amateur  will  sometimes 
have  a  thin  negative  which  needs  intensification,  or  one  too  in- 
tense which  should  be  reduced.  These  defects  may  be  general, 
covering  the  whole  plate,  or  there  may  be  changes  needed  only 
in  certain  portions.  If  the  reader  will  kindly  refer  to  the  chapter 
on  formulas,  he  will  find  directions  for  these  manipulations. 
Before  attempting  to  doctor  a  negative,  locally,  if  it  is  a  valuable 
one  which  cannot  be  readily  reproduced,  it  will  be  as  well  to 
make  a  transparency  from  it,  as  from  this  a  new  negative  can  be 
made  if  the  original  should  happen  to  suffer  during  treatment. 

Fog  in  a  negative,  in  which  the  image  seems  to  be  clouded 
or  veiled,  may  come  from  a  variety  of  causes.  A  leak  in  the 
camera  may  cause  this,  or  an  unsafe  dark-lantern,  or  light  getting 
into  the  plate-holder.  A  developer  too  warm  may  produce  fog, 
or  one  containing  too  much  carbonate  of  soda. 

Spots  on  negatives  may  be  due  to  dust  on  the  plate,  or  bubbles 
in  the  tray,  or  to  washing  the  plate  before  developing.  Such 
spots  should  be  carefully  touched  with  some  opaque  color  applied 
with  a  finely-pointed  brush,  moistening  the  color  with  mucilage- 
This  color  should  be  as  nearly  as  possible  like  that  of  the  negative; 
neutral  tint,  carmine  and  Prussian  blue  mixed  carefully,  will 
make  the  right  tint.  Gihon's  opaque  is  also  excellent  for  such 
purposes. 

As  it  is  a  very  nice  operation  touching-out  the  spots  in  nega- 
tives many  photographers  prefer  to  fill  the  spots  with  a  color  so 
dark  that  they  will  show  as  white  spots  in  the  prints.  These 


NOTES   ON    DEVELOPMENT  57 

spots  are  then  more  easily  retouched,  as  the  paper  gives  a  better 
surface  for  the  color,  and  the  picture  shows  the  exact  tint  re- 
quired. Our  illustration  shows  a  very  handy  frame  for  retouch- 
ing negatives. 


Sometimes  a  bit  of  paper  sticks  to  a  negative,  and  it  seems  im- 
possible to  remove  it.  In  printing,  perhaps,  a  wet  finger  care- 
lessly touches  the  film  and  the  paper  adheres.  To  remove  it  lay 
the  plate  in  water  several  minutes  to  soak,  and  then  very 
gently  rub  the  paper  with  the  ball  of  the  thumb  or  finger  until 
most  of  the  paper  is  rubbed  off.  The  rest  will  come  off  by  plac- 
ing the  plate  for  ten  minutes  in  the  hypo,  bath,  after  which  it 
can  be  washed  and  dried. 

The  film  of  a  negative,  after  drying,  should  feel  smooth  to  the 
touch.  If  it  feels  at  all  rough  it  shows  that  the  hypo,  has  not 
been  entirely  removed  in  the  washing,  and  the  plate  should  be 
carefully  washed  again  for  fifteen  or  twenty  minutes. 


CHAPTEK  VII. 

PRINTING   ON   BEADY-SENSITIZED   PAPER. 

We  describe  this  first  because  for  the  beginner  it  is  the  sim- 
plest process  of  silver  printing.  A  good  quality  of  ready-sensi- 
tized paper  can  be  procured  of  any  dealer  in  photographic  sup- 
plies. The  articles  required  for  printing,  in  which  we  shall  in- 
clude toning  and  fixing,  are: 

One  or  two  printing-frames. 

One  half  pound  powdered  borax. 

Thirty  grain  vial  chloride  gold  and  sodium,  and  a  glass  or  por- 
celain tray  of  suitable  size  for  toning  the  prints. 

The  prints  can  be  fixed  in  the  same  tray  in  which  the  plates 
are  fixed,  but  it  is  better  to  have  a  separate  tray  for  toning 
rather  than  use  for  that  purpose  the  same  tray  as  used  in 
developing.  The  sizes  of  printing-frames  desirable  are,  say 
2  5x8,  and  2  8x10.  Each  of  these  should  be  fitted  with  a  plate  of 
thick,  clear  glass,  which  will  serve  as  a  support  for  any  small 
negatives  when  we  have  occasion  to  print  from  them.  Also 
with  each  frame  there  should  be  a  piece  of  close-grained  felt  not 
too  thick  and  cut  the  size  of  the  frame;  the  object  of  the  felt  is 
to  hold  the  sensitized  paper  firmly  in  contact  with  the  negative 
when  printing.  Before  printing  with  ready-sensitized  paper  it  is 
important  that  the  paper  should  be  fumed,  and  for  this  purpose 


PRINTING   ON   READY-SENSITIZED    PAPER.  59 

the  amateur  should  make  a  f uming-box.  The  following  descrip. 
tion  of  one  used  by  the  writer  will  enable  any  one  to  make  such  a 
box  without  difficulty.  The  size  is  not  important  so  long  as  it  is 
large  enough.  We  found  around  the  house  a  packing-box  which 
measured  about  18  inches  long  and  12  inches  wide  and  10  inches 
deep.  We  fastened  the  cover  on  by  two  hinges,  so  that  when 
the  box  was  standing  on  end,  this  would  open  like  a  door;  then 
about  two  inches  from  the  bottom,  (we  are  supposing  now  that 
this  box  is  standing  on  end)  we  tacked  on  each  side  two  wooden 
cleats  about  one-half  inch  square ;  then  we  cut  a  sheet  of  paste- 
board of  the  right  size  to  be  placed  in  the  box  and  supported  on 
these  cleats.  This  pasteboard  we  perforated  with  fifty  or  sixty 
small  holes  about  •§•  of  an  inch  in  diameter.  We  leave  space  enough 
between  the  pasteboard  and  the  bottom  of  the  box  to  allow  us 
to  slide  under  a  small  saucer,  which  for  fuming, we  partly  fill  with 
ammonia.  Then  we  make  two  more  cleats  and  tack  these  to  the 
two  sides  about  an  inch  below  the  top  of  the  box.  We  then  cut 
about  half  a  dozen  strips  of  soft  wood  about  one-half  inch  square 
and  just  long  enough  to  slide  across  the  width  of  the  box  on  the 
two  upper  cleats.  Finally,  we  paste  strips  of  paper  over  all  the 
cracks  or  any  places  where  light  might  get  through  into  our  box, 
and  it  is  complete.  To  use  it  we  pin  by  the  corners  small 
sheets  of  sensitized  paper  to  the  strips  of  wood,  and  slide  them 
into  the  box  on  the  upper  cleats.  The  paper  thus  hangs  down 
in  the  center  of  the  box,  care  being  taken  not  to  allow  the  sheets 
to  touch  each  other.  We  then  pour  the  ammonia  into  the  saucer, 
place  it  in  the  center  of  the  bottom  of  the  box  under  the  paste- 
board  and  close  the  door.  The  paper  should  remain  in  this  fum- 
ing box  about  twenty  minutes,  when  it  can  be  taken  out  and  kept 


60 

in  a  dark  drawer  or  box  until  ready  to  use.  In  an  hour 
you  can  fume  as  much  of  the  paper  as  you  will  require  for 
your  printing  during  the  day,  that  is,  unless  you  are  attempt- 
ing to  print  on  a  grand  scale.  Having  your  paper  now 
fumed,  we  take  the  negative  and  place  it  in  the  printing- 
frame  with  the  film  side  up,  having  previously  carefully  dusted 
off  the  plate.  Then,  on  this  negative  lay  the  sheet  of  fumed 
paper  with  the  sensitive  side  in  contact  with  the  film  side  of  the 
negative;  upon  this  lay  the  felt  and  then  the  back  of  the  printing- 
frame. 

Now,  it  will  frequently  be  the  case  that  there  are  some  nega- 
tives very  intense  which  will  take  a  long  time  to  print.  Prints 
from  such  negatives,  and  such  only,  should  be  printed  in  the  di» 
rect  sunlight — facing  squarely  the  sun.  This  latter  point  is  es- 
sential, as  otherwise  the  edge  of  the  frame  would  throw  a  shade 
on  the  plate,  and  where  this  shadow  falls  the  picture  would  be 
only  half  printed.  If  your  negative  is  not  too  intense  but  is 
what  might  be  called  a  good  printing  negative,  it  should  not  be 
exposed  to  the  direct  sunlight,  but  should  rather  be  printed  in 
the  shade;  or,  if  turned  towards  the  sun,  the  frame  should  be 
covered  with  white  tissue  paper.  If  the  negative  is  a  thin  one* 
it  must  be  printed  in  the  shade.  Understand  that  by  a  thin  nega- 
tive we  do  not  mean  that  the  glass  is  thin,  but  that  the  image  is 
thin,  and  can  be  seen  through  very  distinctly  when  held  towards 
the  light.  If  the  negative  is  so  thin  that  the  print,  even  when 
made  in  the  shade,  is  flat  and  weak,  it  will  be  well  to  print 
it  in  the  sunshine,  covering  the  frame  with  a  sheet  of 
yellow  or  orange  glass.  We  have  made  vigorous  prints  in 
this  way  from  negatives  that  seemed  too  thin  for  any 


PRINTING   ON    READY-SENSITIZED    PAPER.  61 

kind  of  print.  Under  the  head  of  "  Transparencies,"  we  shall 
show  how  to  make  new  and  stronger  negatives  from  such  weak 
ones. 

Slow  printing  always  makes  the  richest  prints.  Half  of  the 
back  of  the  printing  frame  can  be  raised  so  that  the  print  can  be 
examined  from  time  to  time ;  care,  of  course,  being  taken  not  to 
allow  the  paper  to  be  moved  from  its  first  position,  otherwise  the 
print  will  be  blurred.  If  you  print  against  the  glass  on  the  in- 
side of  a  window  be  sure  that  the  glass  is  clean,  with  no  spots  on 
it.  The  printing  is  to  be  carried  on  until  the  picture  is  one  or 
two  shades  darker  than  it  is  desired  to  have  it  after  toning. 
After  printing  and  toning  one  or  two  batches  of  prints  there  will 
be  little  difficulty  in  deciding  how  deep  the  printing  should  be 
carried.  When  examining  the  prints  in  the  frame,  care  should  be 
taken  not  to  allow  sun-light  to  fall  upon  the  paper,  and  the 
frames  should  be  opened,  therefore,  away  from  the  strong 
light. 

It  sometimes  occurs  that  a  portion  of  a  negative  is  thin,  and 
prints  very  quickly,  while  the  rest  is  intense  and  very  slow  in 
printing.  To  remedy  this  and  get  an  even  print,  we  can  hold  a 
sheet  of  rather  thin,  white  paper  over  the  thin  part  of  the  nega- 
tive while  printing  in  the  sunlight,  the  paper  being  cut  so  as  to 
shade  only  the  parts  which  we  wish  to  cover.  The  paper  should 
be  kept  slowly  moving  so  as  not  to  let  its  outline  show  in  the 
print.  If  this  does  not  suffice,  we  can  paint  over  the  thin  portions 
on  the  lack  of  the  plate  with  Gibon's  opaque,  and  rub  this  off 
when  the  more  intense  parts  are  nearly  done.  Or,  the  thin  por- 
tions can  be  retouched  on  the  back  of  the  plate  with  one  or 
two  coats  of  Prussian  blue,  applied  with  a  fine  water-color 


62 

brush.  Previous  to  doing  this  the  glass  should  be  well 
cleaned  with  powdered  pumice  stone,  rubbing  it  with  the 
finger  moistened  with  alcohol  or  water,  and  then  carefully 
brushed  off  with  a  clean,  soft  cloth.  This  will  allow  the  color  to 
lie  smooth. 

TONING   AND   FIXING    PRINTS. 

The  operation  of  toning  should  be  carried  on  either  in  the  eve- 
ning by  artificial  light,  or  it  can  be  safely  done  in  the  daytime,  but 
not  near  a  window  admitting  a  strong  light.  As  fast  as  the  prints 
are  finished  they  should  be  put  in  a  dark  box  until  they  are  ready 
for  the  next  operation.  It  is  better  that  the  prints  should  be 
toned  the  same  day  they  are  printed,  though  it  is  not  necessary 
to  do  this ;  they  can  be  kept  a  week  or  more  if  desirable,  but  it  is 
better  to  tone  them  before  too  large  a  number  accumulates,  as  it 
is  alway  easier  to  tone  a  few  prints  at  a  time  than  to  undertake  a 
great  many.  Before  toning,  the  prints  should  be  trimmed  care- 
fully, and  the  trimmings  saved  in  some  box  or  drawer;  they 
contain  silver,  and  hereafter  we  shall  explain  how  to  get  the 
silver  out  of  them.  To  make  the  toning  solution,  we  take  a  pint 
bottle  and  pour  into  it  an  ounce  of  powdered  borax.  "We  fill  the 
bottle  with  hot  water  and  shake  it  until  the  borax  is  entirely  dis- 
solved, then  we  set  the  bottle  away  to  cool.  Then  we  take  a  four 
ounce  bottle  which  we  know  to  be  perfectly  clean,  and  pour  into 
it  the  contents  of  our  thirty  grain  vial  of  chloride  gold  and  so- 
dium. The  gold  does  not  all  run  out,  but  we  shall  attend  to  that 
in  a  few  minutes.  Carefully  cleaning  our  four  ounce  graduate  we 
pour  into  it  thirty  drams  distilled  water;  we  pour  a  few  drops  of 
this  into  the  gold  vial,  which  dissolves  the  gold,  which  we  then  pour 
into  the  four  ounce  bottle.  "We  continue  this  several  times, 


PRINTING   ON   READY-SENSITIZED   PAPER.  63 

pouring  a  little  water  into  the  vial  and  then  pouring  that  into  the 
other  bottle,  until  we  are  sure  that  all  of  the  gold  is  out  of  the 
vial,  when  we  pour  the  balance  of  the  thirty  drams  into  our 
bottle  and  cork  it.  This  bottle  now  contains  thirty  drams  water, 
and  thirty  grains  gold  and  sodium,  and  we  label  it: 

Chloride  gold  solution. 

One  dram  equals  one  grain. 

We  now  prepare  the  fixing  solution  by  pouring  into  our  fix- 
ing tray  two  ounces  of  our  hypo,  stock  solution,  two  ounces  water 
and  two  drams  of  our  carbonate  soda  solution.    By  this  time  we 
will  take  it  for  granted  that  our  solution  of  borax  is  cool,  and  we 
take  of  that  two  ounces  and  two  ounces  of  water,  to  which  we  add 
one  dram  of  our  gold  solution.     This  makes  the  toning  bath, 
and  we  pour  it  into  our  toning  tray.     After  using  this  toning 
bath,  unless  we  have  more  prints  to  tone  the  same  day,  it  should 
be  thrown  away.   "We  now  take  a  clean  tray,  large  enough  to  hold 
our  prints,  and  fill  it  nearly  full  of  water.     Into  this  we  lay  the 
prints  one  by  one,  face  down,  pressing  them  carefully  under  the 
water  so  that  no  air  bubbles  adhere  to  the  paper.     We  stir  them 
about  in  the  tray  and  shake  the  tray  for  a  few  minutes,  and  then 
pour  the  water  off ,  which  we  notice  is  slightly  milky:  we  then 
fill  the  tray  again  and  shake  it  well  to  let  the  water  freely 
circulate  among  the  prints,  and  again  pour  off  the  water.     We 
repeat  this  operation  half  a  dozen  times,  and  the  time  before  the 
last  we  add  to  the  water  about  three  drams  of  our  stock  solution 
of   carbonate    soda.     In  large  photograph  establishments  the 
water  from  these  first  two  or  three  washings  is  always  saved  as 
it  is  very  rich  in  silver.     But  amateurs,  unless  they  expect  to  do 
a  good  deal  of  printing,  will  not  find  it  to  pay  to  save  these 


64 

wastes.  We  shall,  however,  in  a  subsequent  chapter  explain  how 
all  these  wastes  can  be  saved.  When  the  prints  are  finally 
washed,  which,  it  will  be  noticed  has  changed  them  to  a  some- 
what reddish  color,  they  can  be  placed  in  the  toning  bath.  It  is 
not  desirable  to  have  more  than  six  or  eight  in  the  toning  bath 
at  one  time,  and,  therefore,  if  we  have  a  dozen  in  the  washing- 
tray  we  will  tone  at  first  only  six  of  them.  We  place  them  in 
the  bath  one  by  one,  face  down,  pressing  each  one  well  into  the 
solution  to  insure  its  being  wholly  covered.  We  now  gently  rock 
the  tray  to  circulate  the  solution  thoroughly  through  the  prints 
and  after  a  few  minutes  we  raise  them  at  one  corner  and  care- 
fully draw  out  the  lower  one,  which  we  examine  to  see  if  it  is 
sufficiently  toned.  If  not  toned,  we  replace  it  on  the  top  of  the 
others  and  again  draw  out  the  under  one:  this,  we  keep  repeat, 
ing  until  the  toning  is  done,  which  will  be  when  the  prints  have 
a  rich  purple  tint,  when  examined  by  transmitted  light.  This 
tint  should  show  rich  and  warm  right  through  the  paper.  The 
peculiar  tint  can  only  be  learned  by  experience.  Do  not  slight 
the  matter  of  turning  the  prints.  If  allowed  to  remain  some 
time  in  the  toning  bath  without  this  constant  changing  there  are 
liable  to  occur  small  or  large  spots  where  air  bubbles  prevent  the 
toner  from  acting,  and  such  spots  retain  their  reddish  color. 
Should  such  spots  be  seen,  they  can  usually  be  cured  by  turning 
them,  print  face  up  in  the  tray,  and  pouring  some  of  the  solu- 
tion on  the  spots  from  a  graduate.  When  toned  sufficiently  the 
prints  should  be  placed  in  a  tray  of  clean  water,  and  the  other 
batch  of  prints  placed  in  the  toning  bath  to  go  through  the  same 
operations.  After  all  the  prints  are  toned  they  should  be  thor- 
oughly washed  in  the  washing  tray  in  five  or  six  changes  of 


PRINTING  ON   READY-SENSITIZED   PAPER.  65 

water;  they  are  then  ready  for  the  fixing  bath  and  are  to  be  placed 
in  the  fixer  one  at  a  time,  face  down.  The  fixing  tray  should  be 
rocked  occasionally,  and  the  prints  changed  once  or  twice,  from 
the  bottom  to  the  top,  as  in  toning.  The  prints  should  remain 
in  it  about  fifteen  minutes.  The  fixing  bath  should  be  used  for 
only  one  batch  of  prints.  While  they  are  in  the  fixer  the  salt 
bath  can  be  prepared,  which  is  made  by  dissolving  about  one 
ounce  common  salt  in  four  ounces  of  water.  The  object  of  the 
salt  bath  is  to  prevent  blisters,  which  are  very  annoying  when 
they  occur  in  the  prints.  Blisters,  however,  in  spite  of  all  pre- 
cautions, may  occur,  and  it  may  be  well  to  know  how  to  manage 
them.  Lay  a  clean  piece  of  blotting  paper  on  a  smooth  board, 
or  on  the  top  of  your  table,  and  upon  this  lay  the  wet  print,  face 
up.  Then  cover  the  blister  with  another  sheet  of  blotting  paper, 
and  very  gently  rub  the  paper  directly  over  the  blister  with  a 
circular  motion.  This  rubbing  should  be  very  light  at  first,  the 
pressure  being  gradually  increased,  and  after  a  few  moments  the 
blister  will  be  found  to  have  disappeared,  or  will  leave  but  a 
slight  trace,  which  cannot  be  seen  after  the  print  is  dry.  After 
the  prints  have  been  a  sufficient  time  in  the  fixer  they  are  trans- 
ferred directly,  one  at  a  time,  to  the  salt  solution,  in  which  they 
should  remain  five  or  six  minutes,  and  then,  after  rinsing  in  fresh 
water,  placed  in  the  washing-box.  Dealers  in  photographic 
materials  generally  have  washing-boxes  for  sale,  but  we  have 
always  found  the  following  the  most  serviceable  for  our  own  use. 
We  take  a  large,  clean  earthen  jar,  the.  larger  the  better  (our  own 
holds  about  10  gallons)  which  we  stand  in  a  sink  or  bath  tub, 
the  water  being  let  into  it  by  means  of  a  rubber  tube,  running 
from  the  tap  to  the  bottom  of  the  jar.  The  prints  are  placed  in 

5 


66 

this  when  filled  with  water,  which  being  fed  from  the  bottom  and 
overflowing  the  edges  keeps  up  a  continual  circulation.  The 
prints  should  remain  in  this  at  least  an  hour,  and  two  if  possible. 
One  advantage  of  this  jar  for  the  washing-box  is,  that  there  are 
no  sharp  corners  in  it  to  tear  the  prints.  After  the  washing  is 
complete  the  prints  can  be  taken  out  and  laid  face  up  on  news- 
papers, or  suspended  on  clean  strings,  to  dry,  or  they  can  be  im- 
mediately mounted  on  cards. 

If  only  a  few  prints  require  washing  it  will  not  be  necessary  to 
place  them  in  the  jar  with  running  water.  They  can  be  washed 
as  well  in  a  tray  of  water,  which  should  be  rocked  to  circulate  the 
water  well  among  the  prints.  After  half  a  dozen  changes  of  the 
water,  the  prints  should  be  laid  separately  on  a  sheet  of  glass, 
first  face  down  and  then  face  up,  letting  a  good,  strong  stream  of 
water  flow  over  them.  This  will  effectively  wash  out  all  the  hypo 
from  them.  And  it  is  essential  that  prints  should  be  thus  thor- 
oughly washed  to  prevent  their  afterward  turning  yellow  and 
fading. 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

MOUNTING   AND   BURNISHING   THE   PKINTS. 

HPHE  prints  can  be  mounted  as  soon  as  they  are  washed,  or  the 
-*-  mounting  may  be  deferred  to  some  subsequent  time.  In 
the  former  case  the  prints  should  be  taken  directly  from  the  water 
and  laid  one  above  the  other,  face  down,  on  a  sheet  of  glass,  and 
all  the  surplus  water  should  be  squeezed  out  of  them.  The  hand- 
iest thing  for  doing  this  is  a  small  rubber  roller,  which  can  be 
procured  of  dealers  in  these  materials.  If  the  prints  have  been 
allowed  to  dry  after  washing  them,  they  will,  of  course,  need  to 
be  thoroughly  moistened  again  by  soaking  in  water. 

A  good  paste  for  mounting  prints  can  be  made  tby  soaking 
about  one-half  ounce  of  common  laundry  starch  in  one  ounce  of 
cold  water  for  say  half  an  hour,  and  then  adding  to  this  two 
ounces  of  boiling  hot  water,  and  immediately  stirring  the  mixturee 
This  paste  will  not  keep,  but  should  be  used  the  same  day  that  it 
is  made.  A  paste  that  will  keep,  which  will  answer  for  mount- 
ing photographs  and  for  various  other  purposes  for  which  a  paste 
is  required,  can  be  made  in  the  following  way:  Take  about  two 
ounces  of  common  laundry  starch  and  two  ounces  of  water,  and 
stir  these  together  in  a  saucepan  until  it  is  like  a  thick  cream; 
add  to  this  one  pint  of  hot  water  and  about  seventy-five  grains 
sheet  gelatine,  cut  into  small  pieces,  and  stir  these  together  well, 
and  let  them  boil  on  the  stove  for  six  or  eight  minutes,  and  then 


68  THE    AMATEUR    PHOTOGRAPHER'S   HAND   BOOK. 

set  it  to  cool.  Now  measure  out  one  ounce  of  alcohol  and  about 
fifteen  drops  of  ordinary  diluted  carbolic  acid,  which  should  be 
added  to  the  paste  before  it  has  become  entirely  cold.  If  strong 
carbolic  acid  is  used  the  quantity  should  only  be  about  one-third 
of  the  above.  This  paste  should  be  kept  in  a  wide-mouth  bottle 
well  corked. 

Now  to  return  to  our  prints.  With  a  bristle  brush,  a  brush 
about  one  inch  wide  is  a  convenient  size,  we  apply  the  paste  to 
the  back  of  the  uppermost  print,  taking  pains  to  distribute  the 
paste  evenly  over  the  whole  surface,  especially  at  the  edges  and 
corners.  If  any  pieces  of  grit  or  hard  substances  should  be  seen 
in  the  paste  they  may  be  removed  with  the  blade  of  a  penknife, 
Now,  raise  one  edge  of  the  print  carefully  with  the  knife  blade, 
and,  taking  the  print  in  both  hands,  lay  it  upon  the  cardboard  as 
smoothly  as  possible  at  an  equal  distance  from  all  sides.  Upon 
this  lay  a  sheet  of  clean  blotting  paper,  and  with  a  circular  motion 
lightly  go  over  this  with  the  hand,  pressing  the  print  to  its  place, 
taking  care  that  it  adheres  at  the  edges  and  corners.  Then  the 
card  should  be  placed  on  edge  to  dry 

After  mounting  albumen  prints,  and  before  burnishing  them, 
any  light  or  white  spots  caused  by  opaque  spots  in  the  negative 
should  be  "  spotted  out."  To  do  this  we  prepare  a  solution  of 

Water,  one  ounce. 
Alcohol,  one  dram. 
Gum  arabic,  sixty  grains. 
Glycerine,  fifteen  drops. 
Ox-gall,  ten  grains. 

Dissolve  these,  and  keep  in  a  two  ounce  bottle. 


MOUNTING   AND  BURNISHING   THE   PRINTS.  69 

Mix  the  colors  on  a  paint  slab  or  saucer  to  match  exactly  the 
tint  of  the  print,  using  a  few  drops  of  the  above  solution  to 
inoisten  the  paints.  With  carmine,  Prussian  blue  and  neutral 
tint,  any  shade  can  be  matched.  Apply  this  very  delicately  and 
carefully  with  a  fine-pointed  brush. 

"When  the  prints  are  almost  dry  they  can  be  burnished.  The 
burnishing  iron  should  be  heated  and  kept  hot  during  the  burnish- 
ing, about  the  same  heat  as  a  flat  iron  in  ironing  clothes.  Care 
must  be  taken  to  keep  the  polished  surface  of  the  burnisher  bright 
and  clean.  When  the  iron  is  hot  enough  the  ,prints  should  be 
lightly  rubbed  with  a  glac£  polish,  which  is  sold  for  this  purpose, 
and  is  applied  with  a  small  wad  of  flannel.  Then  the  prints 
should  be  passed  through  the  burnisher  two  or  three  times,  the 
burnisher  being  so  adjusted  that  the  pressure  on  the  prints  is 
rather  light;  the  degree  of  pressure  will  be  quickly  learned  by 
experience,  more  pressure  being  required  if  the  prints  have  been 
allowed  to  become  dry  before  being  polished.  White  castile  soap 
will  do  very  well  as  a  lubricator  for  the  prints  before  burnishing, 
and  is  applied  in  the  same  manner  as  the  above. 

It  may  often  happen  that  it  is  not  convenient  to  burnish  prints 
the  same  day  they  are  mounted,  in  which  case  they  can  be  subse- 
quently moistened  safely  in  the  following  way :  Set  a  developing 
tray  filled  with  water  in  the  bottom  of  the  fuming  box  previously 
described,  and  upon  the  perforated  pasteboard  lay  the  mounted 
prints,  on  edge,  so  that  they  do  not  touch  each  other,  and  close  the 
door  tight.  In  a  few  hours  they  will  become  sufficiently  moist 
to  burnish. 

If  it  is  desired  to  have  the  prints  polished  without  mounting 
it  can  be  done  in  the  following  way:  Procure  one  or  two  sheets 


70  THE    AMATEUR    PHOTOGRAPHER'S   HAND    BOOK. 

of  highly  polished  rubber  and  lay  the  wet  prints  face  down  on 
these,  putting  on  as  many  at  a  time  as  the  rubber  will  hold; 
then  all  the  water  should  be  squeezed  out  of  the  prints  with  a 
rubber  roller,  and  after  that  the  surplus  moisture  should  be 
soaked  up  from  the  back  of  the  prints  with  blotting  paper,  the 
prints  being  firmly  and  smoothly  pressed  into  contact  with  the 
rubber.  They  will  dry  in  half  an  hour  or  so>  when  they  can  be 
easily  removed  from  the  rubber,  and  will  be  found  to  come  out 
perfectly  flat  and  with  a  beautiful,  brilliant  polish. 

Every  amateur  should  have  a  large  album  for  his  workroom, 
and  paste  in  it  one  print  from  each  negative  made.  Above  this 
should  be  marked  the  number  of  the  negative,  and  below  it 
something  like  the  following: 

Carbutt  B.— 6— f32— 10  B.     May  10,  1890. 

This  shows  the  kind  of  plate  used,  the  number  of  seconds  of 
exposure,  the  size  of  stop,  the  time  of  day,  whether  bright 
or  cloudy,  and  the  date. 

This  will  be  a  reference  book,  showing  at  a  glance  whether  the 
time  and  stop  were  correct  for  such  a  view — a  helpful  guide  for 
future  work. 

To  mount  quite  large  photographs  we  dampen  a  piece  of  thick 
blotting  paper,  cut  to  the  exact  size  of  the  print,  and  lay  this  upon 
the  back  of  the  card  for  about  ten  minutes  previous  to  the 
mounting.  When  the  print  is  pasted  on  the  other  side  both 
sides  of  the  card  will  dry  at  the  same  time  and  remain  flat. 

Albumen  prints  have  a  tendency  to  curl  very  much  in  drying, 
which  can  be  prevented  by  soaking  them,  after  the  final  washing, 
one  by  one  for  a  few  minutes  in  a  solution  of  pure  glycerine  and 
distilled  water,  mixed  in  the  proportion  of  one  part  glycerine  to 


MOUNTING   AND   BURNISHING   THE    PRINTS.  71 

five  parts  water.  When  removed  from  this  the  superfluous 
moisture  should  be  absorbed  by  gentle  pressure  between  sheets 
of  clean,  white  blotting  paper.  After  this  they  should  be  laid  out 
flat  to  dry,  when  they  will  become  soft  and  smooth.  At  any 
subsequent  time  they  can  be  mounted  dry,  using  paste  or  gelatine, 
and  burnished. 


CHAPTEK  IX. 

BLUB  PBINTS. 

There  are  few  processes  in  the  art,  which  are  as  simple  and 
easy  to  follow  and  capable  of  such  beautiful  results,  as  making 
prints  on  blue  paper.  As  the  paper  is  so  easy  to  prepare,  every 
amateur  should  make  his  own,  because  it  is  always  better  for 
being  perfectly  fresh.  Any  good  close-grain,  hard-surface,  wove 
paper  is  good  for  our  purpose,  and  the  heavier  the  better.  The 
best  paper  that  the  writer  ever  used  for  this  purpose,  was  some 
very  heavy  paper  especially  prepared  by  Crane.  A  so-called 
book  paper  will  not  answer,  as  it  is  too  porous.  But  any,  paper 
that  makes  a  good  writing  paper,  will  also  make  good  blue 
paper.  To  prepare  the  paper,  the  amateur  will  need  a  very  fines 
soft  sponge,  one  of  those  usually  called  a  nursery  sponge. 
For  convenience  in  handling  this,  about  half  or  two-thirds  of  the 
sponge  should  be  inserted  in  the  neck  of  a  rather  wide  mouth 
bottle,  which  will  serve  as  a  handle.  The  part  of  the  sponge 
outside  the  bottle  should  measure  about  one  inch  and  a  half  in 
diameter,  to  be  the  proper  size  for  applying  the  sensitizing  solu- 
tion. For  the  solution,  procure  several  ounces  each  of  citrate 
iron  and  ammonia  and  ferricyanide  of  potassium  (red  prussiate 
of  potash)  C.  P.  The  chemically  pure  is  very  much  to  be  pre- 
ferred to  the  ordinary  commercial  article,  because  it  produces  a 


BLUE   PRINTS.  73 

much  more  brilliant  blue.  Take  of  the  latter  256  grains  and 
dissolvein  a  four  ounce  bottle  of  water;  cover  the  bottle  with  an 
opaque  paper  and  label  it, 

STOCK   SOLUTION. 

Ked  prussiate  of  potash. 
1  dram  equals  8  grains. 

We  make  a  stock  solution  of  this  because  it  will  keep  indef- 
initely. The  other  chemical  used  in  sensitizing  blue  paper  will 
not  keep,  and  therefore  should  be  prepared  fresh  every  time. 

Having  previously  prepared  this  potash  so  that  it  will  be  dis- 
solved and  ready  to  use  when  needed,  we  dissolve  50  grains 
citrate  iron  and  ammonia  in  one-half  ounce  of  water.  This  takes 
but  a  few  minutes  to  dissolve.  The  citrate  of  iron  and  ammonia 
should  be  kept  in  a  wide-mouth  glass  bottle  and  corked  tight,  so 
that  no  air  or  moisture  can  get  to  it.  Having  the  two  chemicals 
now  dissolved  and  ready  to  use,  we  pour  into  a  small  graduate 
four  drams  of  the  potash  solution,  which  is  the  same  quantity  as 
we  are  going  to  use  of  the  iron  and  ammonia.  We  place  our 
funnel  in  our  four  ounce  graduate,  having  previously  placed  in 
the  bottom  of  the  funnel  a  small  wad  of  wet  cotton  wool,  and 
pour  the  potash  into  the  funnel  and  immediately  follow  it  with 
the  half  ounce  of  iron  and  ammonia.  They  will  filter  through 
the  cotton  in  a  few  minutes,  and  to  this  solution  we  add  about 
one  grain  of  bromide  of  potassium  from  the  stock  solution  which 
we  have  at  hand.  This  bromide  must  be  used  judiciously.  If 
all  the  paper  is  to  be  used  within  a  week,  do  not  add  any  brom- 
ide. It  is  only  to  be  added  where  the  paper  is  to  be  kept  for 
some  uncertain  time.  Too  much  bromide  will  make  the  paper 


74 

print  slowly.  The  object  of  this  bromide  is  to  keep  the  sensi- 
tized paper  fresh.  ISTow  take  the  paper  which  we  wish  to  sensi- 
tize, and  cut  it  to  a  convenient  size,  as  it  is  much  easier  to 
sensitize  smoothly  a  small  sheet  of  paper  than  it  is  a  large  one. 
We  pin  this  paper  by  the  four  corners  to  a  smooth  board  on 
which  has  been  placed  a  sheet  of  clean  paper.  Any  drawing 
board  will  answer  for  this  purpose,  if  it  is  soft  enough  to  hold 
the  pins.  Now  we  take  th6  sponge  and  moisten  the  end  of  it,  so 
that  it  will  take  water  freely,  and  then  squeeze  all  the  water  out 
of  it,  and  dip  the  sponge  in  the  sensitizing  solution  that  is  in  the 
graduate.  The  sponge  will  suck  up  more  than  we  need,  so  we 
press  it  against  the  glass  to  squeeze  out  a  part.  The  quantity 
can  only  be  learned  by  experience.  *  With  the  sponge  in  hand, 
now  swab  the  paper  gently,  smoothly  and  quickly,  beginning 
at  the  upper  left-hand  corner  and  brushing  lengthwise  across 
the  paper,  continuing  this,  always  working  the  sponge  in  the 
same  direction,  until  the  surface  of  the  paper  is  covered  with  the 
solution;  then  immediately,  without  again  dipping  the  sponge  in 
the  glass,  swab  the  paper  at  right  angles  to  the  first  direction,  be- 
ginning at  the  lower  left-hand  corner  and  ending  at  the  upper 
right-hand  corner.  This  should  be  done  quickly  and  smoothly. 
Hang  the  paper  up  to  dry,  by  one  or  two  of  the  pins,  where  no 
dust  or  dirt  can  get  upon  it,  and  proceed  to  sensitize  another  sheet 
in  the  same  way.  After  sensitizing  the  quantity  needed,  the 
paper,  which  will  dry  in  a  few  minutes,  can  be  cut  to  different 
sizes.  All  of  these  operations,  of  course,  should  be  done  in  the 
evening  and  not  by  daylight.  If  all  of  the  solution  is  not  used 

*  Use  just  enough  in  the  sponge  to  brush  over  the  paper  without  allowing 
the  solution  to  flow  or  spread. 


BLUE    PRINTS.  75 

do  not  attempt  to  preserve  it,  but  throw  it  away  and  care- 
fully clean  out  the  glass.  So  much  for  the  paper. 

Blue  paper  should  be  printed  preferably  in  the  sunlight,  as 
it  may  take  several  hours  to  print  in  the  shade,  and  the  printing 
should  be  continued  until  the  dark  portions  of  the  picture  assume 
a  kind  of  bronze  color.  A  little  experience  will  show  just  how 
far  to  carry  the  printing.  "When  the  printing  is  done,  the  print 
should  be  placed  in  a  tray  of  water,  face  down  for  a  few  minutes, 
and  left  there  until  the  whites  in  the  picture  come  out  clear,  or 
till  the  white  margin  around  the  picture  comes  out  white,  when 
it  can  be  hung  up  to  dry.  It  is  not  necessary,  of  course,  to  put 
the  prints  in  the  water,  as  soon  as  they  are  printed,  as  they  can 
be  kept  for  a  day  or  two,  and  a  number  of  them  washed  at  the 
same  time. 

We  think  it  is  a  very  good  plan  in  making  blue  prints  to  have 
one  or  two  large  frames,  so  that  the  blue  print  can  be  printed  in 
the  center  of  a  large  sheet  of  paper,  when  it  will  show  like  an 
engraving,  with  a  broad  margin  around  it.  Suppose  we  have  a 
frame,  the  inside  of  which  is  11  x  14  inches,  for  which  we  have  a 
piece  of  glass  cut  the  same  size,  as  a  support  to  the  smaller  neg- 
ative from  which  we  wish  to  print  in  this  frame.  If  our  negative 
is  5  x  8  inches  for  example,  we  cut  out  a  sheet  of  thick  opaque 
paper  11  x  14  inches  and  in  the  center  of  this,  for  a  5  x  8  neg- 
ative, we  cut  an  opening,  say  four  and  five-eighths  inches  one 
way  and  seven  and  a  half  inches  the  other  way.  Placing  the  neg- 
ative in  the  center  of  our  frame  on  the  glass,  we  lay  upon  it  this 
black  mat,  so  that  all  the  margin  of  the  negative  is  entirely 
covered,  and  upon  this  we  lay  our  sheet  of  blue  paper,  cut  the 
same  size,  11  x  14  inches.  We  make  a  print  from  this,  and  on 


76  THE   AMATEUR    PHOTOGRAPHER'S   HAND    BOOK. 

putting  it  in  the  washing-tray,  we  find  that  all  of  the  blue  solu- 
tion on  the  margin  washes  off,  leaving  all  of  the  paper  except 
the  picture  pure  white.  After  it  is  dried,  it  should  be  pressed 
smooth  under  a  heavy  weight. 

Plate  marks  can  be  made  on  these  prints  in  the  same  way  as 
described  in  the  following  chapter. 


CHAPTEK  X. 

PLAIN  PAPER  AND  ALBUMEN  PAPER. 

our  mind  there  is  no  process  of  printing  that  can  compare 
in  an  artistic  sense  with  prints  on  plain  paper.  The  gloss 
and  shine  of  albumen  prints  are  not  pleasing  to  the  eye;  they 
usually  detract  from  the  beauty  of  the  picture.  If  albumen 
prints  do  not  appear  finished  without  a  polish,  it  ought  to  be  an 
objection  to  the  use  of  that  paper.  We  hardly  think  that  a  per- 
son who  possesses  a  fine  engraving  would  consent  to  have  it  pol- 
ished. That  would  give  it  a  cheap  and  tawdry  appearance. 

The  plain  paper  is  altogether  easier  to  prepare  than  the  albu- 
men, and  the  process  is  so  simple  that  anyone  can  make  it,  and 
make  with  it  most  beautiful  pictures.  Perhaps  the  simplicity  of 
its  preparation  is  one  reason  why  amateurs  are  not  encouraged 
to  use  it,  as  it  would  lessen  the  demand  for  other  papers  in  which 
there  is  greater  profit. 

The  same  paper  that  is  used  for  making  blue  prints  will 
answer  for  this  purpose.  Care  should  be  taken  to  select  a  paper 
that  is  smooth  and  not  too  hard,  of  pure  linen  stock.  The  paper 
first  requires  to,  be  salted,  for  which  purpose  we  prepare  a  solution 
as  follows : 

To  16  ounces  of  hot  water  add  16  grains  sheet  gelatine,  and 
when  this  is  dissolved  add  50  grains  chloride  ammonium. 

After  this  solution  has  become  cool,  it  should  be  filtered.   The 


78  THE    AMATEUR    PHOTOGRAPHER'S   HAND    BOOK. 

paper  should  be  cut  a  little  larger  than  it  is  intended  to  be  when 
finished.  That  is  to  say,  if  we  wish  to  make  some  8x10  plain 
paper,  it  would  be  well  to  have  our  sheets  for  sensitizing  10J  or 
11x16^  or  17  inches.  Or,  if  we  wish  to  make  5x8  paper,  the 
paper  should  be  cut  either  the  size  mentioned  before,  or  about 
SJxlOJ  inches,  as  a  large  sheet  can  be  prepared  about  as  quickly 
as  a  small  one.  Having  our  paper  ready,  we  pour  the  solution 
into  a  tray,  a  trifle  larger  than  the  paper,  and  either  float  the  paper 
upon  it  or  immerse  the  paper  in  it.  In  the  first  case  only  one 
side,  the  side  which  comes  in  contact  with  the  salt  solution  would 
be  salted.  In  the  latter  case  both  sides.  If  only  one  side  of  the 
paper  is  salted  it  will  be  necessary  to  mark  the  other  side  with  a 
pencil  to  show  the  right  side  for  sensitizing.  The  manner  of 
floating  the  paper  upon  the  solution  is  as  follows :  Take  the  paper 
by  two  opposite  corners,  one  in  each  hand,  and  bring  the  two 
corners  nearly  together;  lay  the  paper  gently  upon  the  solution, 
letting  the  two  corners  down  in  such  a  way  as  to  drive  out  any 
air  bubbles  that  might  get  beneath  them.  Then  if  the  corners 
curl  upward,  either  blow  them  down  or  press  them  down  with  the 
fingers  till  they  lie  smooth.  The  paper  should  remain  on  the 
solution  about  three  minutes,  when  it  should  be  removed  by 
raising  one  corner,  and  then  hung  up  to  dry.  All  these  opera- 
tions, of  course,  are  done  by  daylight.  In  place  of  floating  the 
paper  upon  the  solution,  it  can  be  wholly  immersed,  which  is 
much  the  best  way,  as  well  as  the  easiest.  This  is  done  by 
placing  one  side  of  the  paper  in  the  solution  at  the  edge,  and 
shoving  it  along  under  the  solution  until  the  whole  is  in  the 
tray.  If  any  air  bubbles  are  seen  on  the  paper  they  should  be 
immediately  touched  with  the  finger  to  remove  them.  The 


PLAIN  PAPER  AND  ALBUMEN  PAPER.  79 

paper  should  remain  in  the  solution  half  a  minute,  and  then 
be  hung  up  to  dry  as  before.  "Where  both  sides  in  this  way  are 
salted  it  is,  of  course,  unnecessary  to  mark  either,  as  the  sensi- 
tizing can  be  done  on  either  side.  The  paper  will  dry  in  twenty 
or  thirty  minutes,  when  it  will  be  ready  for  sensitizing,  or  it 
may  be  kept  for  any  length  of  time  until  needed.  The  time  for 
leaving  the  paper  in  the  solution  will  vary  with  different  quali- 
ties of  paper.  From  ten  to  fifteen  seconds  will  be  long  enough 
for  a  soft,  smooth  paper.  Hard  papers,  such  as  are  used  for 
ledgers,  require  longer  time. 

The  above  we  should  call  a  normal  salting  solution.  If  we 
decrease  the  quantity  of  chloride  ammonium  to  thirty  grains,  we 
should  have  a  weak  bath,  which  would  require  a  weak  sensitiz- 
ing solution,  thirty  to  thirty -five  grains  of  silver  in  the  place  of 
the  sixty  grain  solution  we  describe  hereafter. 

Or  we  might  make  a  very  strong  salt  bath  by  increasing  the 
quantity  of  ammonium  to  one  hundred  grains.  Paper  so  strong- 
ly salted  should  be  sensitized  with  a  solution  containing  sixty- 
five  to  seventy-five  grains  of  silver  in  place  of  the  sixty  grains 
mentioned. 

The  quality  of  the  negative  determines  the  strength  of  the  sen- 
sitizing solution ;  for  a  weak,  thin  negative  the  paper  should  be 
strongly  sensitized  and  printed  in  diffused  light,  or  exposed  to  the 
sun  with  a  sheet  of  white  paper  in  front  of  the  printing-frame ;  for 
an  intense  or  slow  printing  negative,  the  paper  should  be  sensi- 
tized with  a  weak  silver  solution,  and  printed  in  the  sunshine. 

For  all  ordinary  negatives,  however,  it  will  be  found  that  the 
salt  bath  we  give  first,  and  the  sixty  grain  silver  solution,  will 
answer  every  requirement. 


80  THE   AMATEUR   PHOTOGRAPHER'S   HAND    BOOK. 

In  fact,  we  have  used  this  with  uniformly  good  results  on  neg- 
atives ranging  all  the  way  from  slightly  thin  to  intense,  varying 
the  strength  of  the  solutions  only  in  cases  of  extreme  thinness  or 
intensity. 

Another  salting  solution  is  the  following: 
Sheet  gelatine,  35  grains. 
Chloride  ammonium,  100  grains. 
Citric  acid,  neutralized,  100  grains. 
Water  to  make -30  ounces. 

Dissolve  the  gelatine  in  fifteen  ounces  of  hot  water,  and  add 
the  chloride  ammonium.  Then  dissolve  the  citric  acid  in  four 
ounces  of  water,  and  neutralize  it  by  adding  slowly,  with  con- 
tinual stirring,  two  hundred  grains  carbonate  of  soda  crystals,  or 
half  that  weight  of  the  dried  soda.  When  the  solution  ceases  to 
effervesce,  it  should  turn  red  litmus  paper  blue;  or  it  will  be  just 
as  well  to  place  in  the  mixture  a  small  piece  of  blue  litmus  paper 
which  has  been  reddened  in  the  acid  before  adding  the  soda. 
This  is  then  to  be  poured  into  the  first  solution,  and  water  added 
to  make  the  quantity  up  to  the  thirty  ounces.  After  filtering,  it 
will  be  ready  for  use  as  previously  described. 

This  is  the  old  formula  for  salting  paper.  We  do  not  think  it 
gives  as  satisfactory  results  as  the  salting  solution  first  men- 
tioned. 

TO   PREPABE   THE   SENSITIZING    SOLUTION. 

For  this  purpose  we  should  have  two  glass  graduates  perfectly 
clean;  into  one  pour  one-half  ounce  of  water  and  add  to  this 
sixty  grains  nitrate  silver  crystals.  They  will  dissolve  in  a  few 


PLAIN  PAPER  AND  ALBUMEN  PAPER.  81 

minutes  by  stirring  them  with  a  glass  rod.  When  dissolved  we 
add,  drop  by  drop,  concentrated  ammonia;  a  dark  brown  precipi- 
tate will  be  formed.  Keep  adding  the  ammonia,  drop  by  drop, 
and  after  about  thirty  drops  begin  stirring  with  the  glass  rod ; 
after  awhile,  the  dropping  and  stirring  being  continued,  the  am- 
monia will  redissolve  the  dark  precipitate,  and  the  solution  will 
begin  to  grow  clear.  When  it  is  perfectly  clear  pour  one-half  of 
the  solution  into  the  other  empty  graduate;  then,  to  either  one  of 
these  solutions,  add  drop  by  drop  strong  nitric  acid,  stirring  the 
solution  with  the  glass  rod.  Continue  adding  the  acid  until  the 
solution  turns  blue  litmus  paper  red;  then  pour  the  acid  solution 
into  the  solution  in  the  other  graduate  and  add  water  to  make  up 
to  one  ounce.  This  is  the  solution  required  for  our  sensitizing. 
If  made  in  the  day  time  these  operations  should  be  carried  on  in 
the  dark-room,  or  it  can  be  made  in  the  evening  by  gas  or  lamp 
light.  The  solution  should  be  poured  into  a  bottle  covered  with 
dark  paper,  and  will  keep  indefinitely  in  a  dark  place. 

We  will  now  proceed  to  sensitize  the  paper,  which  can  be  done 
in  the  evening  by  gas  light.  We  lay  a  sheet  of  clean  paper,  larger 
than  the  paper  we  wish  to  sensitize,  on  a  smooth  board,  and  to 
this  we  pin  a  sheet  of  the  salted  paper  with  the  salted  side  up. 
The  pins  should  be  placed  in  the  four  corners  of  the  paper,  and 
as  near  to  the  edge  as  possible. 

We  now  have  to  describe  how  to  make  the  brush  for  applying 
the  solution.  For  this  purpose  we  need  a  glass  tube  three  or  four 
inches  long,  and  about  one-half  inch  in  diameter  inside.  In  case 
we  do  not  have  this  we  can  break  a  hole  through  the  bottom  of  a 
four-ounce  bottle,  and  use  that  in  the  place  of  the  tube.  We  pass 
the  loop  of  a  doubled  string — clean  white  cord  is  the  best  to  use 


82 

for  this  purpose — we  pass  this  loop  through  the  tube  and  run 
through  it,  that  is  through  the  loop,  a  wad  of  fine  cotton  wool. 
"We  then,  by  pulling  on  the  two  ends  of  the  string,  pull  a  portion 
of  this  wad  into  the  tube,  the  greater  part  of  it  forming  a  sort  of 


ball  or  brush  at  the  end.  The  ends  of  the  string  are  then  fastened 
securely  around  the  tube,  and  then  the  wad  is  trimmed  neatly 
with  scissors,  cutting  off  all  the  loose  ends.  This  sensitizing 
brush  should  be  from  one  inch  to  one  and  a  half  inches  in  diame- 
ter, the  size  depending  somewhat  upon  the  size  of  the  paper  which 
we  wish  to  sensitize.  If  we  wish  to  prepare  a  sheet  of  5  x  8  paper 
only,  a  very  small  brush  will  answer  for  that  purpose.  Every- 
thing being  ready,  we  pour  a  few  drams  of  the  silver  solution 
into  a  four-ounce  graduate,  and  in  this  we  place  the  brush,  allow- 
ing it  to  soak  up  as  much  of  the  solution  as  it  will.  Then  with 
the  paper  before  us  on  the  board  as  described,  and  inclined 


PLAIN    PAPER    AND    ALBUMEN    PAER.  83 

towards  us,  we  take  the  brush  and  swab  the  paper,  beginning  at 
the  upper  left  hand  corner  and  brushing  across  the  paper  to  the 
right  until  all  the  paper  has  been  covered.  With  the  first  sheet 
of  paper,  if  it  is  a  large  sheet,  it  may  be  necessary  once  or  twice 
to  take  up  a  little  more  solution  on  the  brush.  As  soon  as  we 
have  thus  finished  the  paper  we  turn  the  board  at  right  angles  to 
its  former  position,  so  that  one  end  will  incline  towards  us,  and 
immediately,  without  adding  any  more  solution  to  the  brush, 
swab  the  paper  across,  beginning  at  the  top  and  working  down 
to  the  bottom  of  the  paper.  This  cross  brushing  prevents  the 
formation  of  any  streaks  which  might  make  their  appearance  if 
the  paper  were  brushed  one  way  only.  Also,  care  must  be  taken,  in 
laying  on  the  solution,  always  to  brush  right  to  the  edge  of 
the  paper. 

The  board  should  now  be  laid  flat,  and  after  a  few  minutes,  or 
as  soon  as  it  becomes  partly  or  surface  dried,  the  paper  should  be 
hung  up  by  two  corners  to  dry.  As  this  is  done  in  the  evening 
it  is  not  necessary,  of  course,  to  hang  the  paper  in  the  dark-room. 
When  a  sufficient  quantity  of  paper  has  been  sensitized  and 
allowed  to  dry  thoroughly,  which  it  will  do  in  fifteen  minutes,  it 
can  be  cut  to  the  required  size,  and  the  clippings  preserved  with 
the  clippings  from  ordinary  silver  paper.  The  sheet  of  paper  on 
which  the  paper  has  been  sensitized  should  also  be  kept  for  sub- 
sequent use.  Any  silver  solution  remaining  in  the  graduate 
should  be  returned  to  the  dark  bottle,  and  the  brush,  when  dry, 
can  be  added  to  the  clippings  of  silver  paper,  as  it  is  quite  rich 
in  silver.  This  brush  should  never  be  used  a  second  time.  This 
silver  paper  which  we  have  now  made  should  be  printed  on  the 
next  day  or  two  after  being  made,  or  it  can  be  preserved  for 


84 

several  weeks  by  keeping  it  in  a  dark  box  between  sheets  of  blot- 
ting paper  that  have  been  saturated  with  a  solution  of  carbonate 
soda  and  afterwards  thoroughly  dried.  The  solution  of  carbo- 
nate soda  for  this  purpose  should  be  in  the  proportion  of  two 
ounces  carbonate  soda  to  twelve  ounces  water. 

In  using  this  plain  paper  we  print  several  shades  deeper  than 
in  using  ready  sensitized  paper:  the  prints  are  toned  and  fixed  in 
the  same  manner  as  the  other  prints  and  washed  in  the  same  way. 
They  will  not  need  to  be  passed  through  any  salt  water  bath  after 
the  fixing,  as  they  do  not  blister.  The  borax  bath  is  altogether 
the  best  that  can  be  used  for  toning  these  prints.  It  is  very 
essential  that  the  washing  before .  toning  should  be  thorough. 
We  usually  soak  them  in  a  tray  for  an  hour,  changing  the  water 
at  least  eight  times. 

An  excellent  way  of  using  this  plain  paper  is  to  sensitize  an 
extra  heavy  paper,  and  then  make  the  prints  in  the  center  so  as 
to  leave  a  broad  margin  of  white  outside;  that  is  to  say,  suppose 
we  have  our  sensitized  paper  8x10,  then  we  cut  some  sheets  of 
thick,  black  paper  8x10  inches  outside  and  cut  "in  the  center  of 
these  square  openings  which  shall  take  in  all  of  the  5x8  negative 
that  we  wish  to  use.  A  good  size  for  these  openings  for  5x8 
prints  would  be  6-J-  or  7  inches  long  and  4J  inches  wide.  Care 
must  be  taken,  of  course,  to  have  the  sides  of  the  openings  par- 
allel to  the  outside  of  the  paper.  Others,  with  the  same  outside, 
might  be  cut  to  make  prints  from  4x5  or  quarter  size  plates.  In 
using  these  masks  the  negative  is  laid  face  up  on  the  large  plate 
of  glass  in  one  of  the  8x10  printing-frames,  then  the  mask  is 
laid  over  the  negative,  care  being  taken  to  see  that  it  covers  the 
edges  of  the  negative  completely,  and  then  the  sensitized  paper 


PLAIN  PAPER  AND  ALBUMEN  PAPER.  85 

is  placed  upon  this.  When  printing,  care  must  be  taken  in  set- 
ting the  frame  in  the  window  or  elsewhere,  to  handle  it  gently, 
as'  ajar  might  slightly  move  the  negative  and  blur  the  print. 

If  one  is  so  situated  that  he  has  the  use  of  a  copying 
press,  he  can  very  materially  add  to  the  elegance  of  these 
prints  by  pressing  a  plate  mark  upon  them.  To  do  this  cut 
several  sheets  of  thin  mounting  card  so  that  they  shall  be 
about  half  an  inch  longer  and  wider  than  the  prints,  taking  pains 
to  have  the  edges  smooth,  straight  and  sharp.  For  instance,  if 
the  picture  is  4£x6£  inches,  the  card  should  be.  cut  5x7  inches? 
and  the  corners  very  slightly  rounded.  When  the  print,  after  the 
final  washing,  is  almost  dry,  lay  it  upon  two  sheets  of  clean  blotting 
paper,  and,  upon  the  picture,  lay  the  prepared  card  so  that  it 
shall  extend  beyond  the  picture  just  a  quarter  of  an  inch  each 
way,  which  can  be  done  accurately  by  marking  its  position  with 
a  pencil;  over  this  lay  a  sheet  of  clean  paper,  and  cover  this  with 
another  sheet  of  blotting  paper.  This  is  then  laid  carefully  in 
the  press,  and  given  a  moderate  pressure,  allowing  it  to  remain 
in  the  press  for  five  or  ten  minutes,  till  the  print  has  become  dry. 
If  all  this  is  neatly  done,  the  result  will  be  a  beautiful  picture,  in 
finish  equal  to  fine  engravings  or  etchings  which  are  so  much 
admired. 

All  prints,  especially  of  landscapes,  whether  in  albumen, 
plain  salted,  or  blue  paper,  can  be  trimmed  fearlessly.  It 
is  seldom  necessary  to  print  the  full  size  of  the  negative. 
Frequently  there  is  something  at  each  side  or  top  or 
bottom  that  may  be  omitted,  which  will  add  to  the  finish 
of  the  picture.  Therefore,  make  opaque  masks  of  different 
sizes  and  shapes,  oblong,  oval,  round,  and  shave  down  the 


86  THE    AMATEUR    PHOTOGRAPHER'S    HAND    BOOK. 

paper  around  the  inside  to  make  it  very  thin  at  the  edge,  and 
cover  the  mask  with  white  tissue  paper.  This  should  then  be 
laid  in  the  printing  frame  under  the  negative,  and  the  printing 
done  in  sunlight.  Try  this  and  see  what  beautiful  pictures  it 
will  make. 

ALBUMEN   PAPER. 

Albumen  paper,  ready  for  sensitizing  with  silver,  can  be  pro  - 
cared  from  dealers  in  such  goods,  of  better  quality  than  any  one 
can  make  for  himself.  The  usual  size  is  18  by  22  inches,  and  to 
sensitize  a  full  sheet  requires  a  tray  somewhat  larger  to  hold  the 
silver  solution.  It  will  be  more  convenient,  however,  for  the 
amateur  to  cut  the  paper  to  slightly  more  than  double  or  quad- 
ruple the  size  required  for  his  plate,  which  will  allow  the  use  of 
a  smaller  tray.  The  paper  to  be  sensitized  should  be  kept  in  a 
damp  place  for  half  a  day  before  use,  as  it  is  more  easily  and 
smoothly  floated  on  the  silver  bath  if  slightly  damp.  The  silver 
solution  should  be  prepared  by  dissolving  in  a  glass  bottle: 

Nitrate  silver,  600  grains. 
Distilled  water,  10  ounces. 

When  this  is  dissolved,  it  should  be  tested  by  laying  in  the 
bottle  a  small  piece  of  litmus  paper.  If  the  litmus  paper  is  not 
reddened  slightly,  showing  its  acidity,  add  drop  by  drop  nitric 
acid,  shaking  the  bottle  after  each  drop,  until  the  paper  changes 
to  a  faint  red.  Paste  a  bit  of  paper  on  the  bottle  on  a  line  with 
the  surface  of  the  solution.  If  it  is  desired  to  sensitize  a  full 
sheet  of  paper  in'  a  large  tray,  a  proportionately  larger  amount  of 
solution  should  be  prepared. 


PLAIN  PAPER  AND  ALBUMEN  PAPER.  87 

When  ready  to  sensitize  the  paper,  this  solution  is  poured  into 
the  tray,  and  the  paper  floated  upon  it  in  the  same  manner  as 
described  in  the  beginning  of  the  chapter,  raising  the  paper  by 
each  corner  to  remove  with  a  glass  rod  any  air  bubbles  that  may 
adhere.  The  paper  should  float  from  a  minute  to  a  minute  and 
a  half,  and  then  be  removed  by  drawing  it  over  a  glass  rod  or 
or  tube  laid  across  the  tray  near  one  end,  to  scrape  off  smoothly 


a  portion  of  the  solution.  Hold  the  paper  by  one  corner  over  the 
tray  to  allow  the  solution  to  drip  off,  and  then  hang  up  to  dry  in 
the  dark,  using  for  this  purpose  the  ordinary  spring  clothes 
pins. 

After  all  the  paper  required  has  been  sensitized  the  bath  can 
be  returned  to  the  bottle.  As  the  paper  has  taken  up  a  portion 
of  the  water  and  silver,  the  solution  should  be  restored  to  its 
original  strength  by  adding  water  to  bring  it  up  to  the  marked 
place,  and  then  adding  twenty  grains  of  nitrate  silver  for  each 
half  sheet  (11x18)  sensitized,  or  in  that  proportion.  The  bottle 
can  be  wrapped  in  black  paper,  and  laid  away  in  the  dark  room* 
The  sensitized  paper  will  dry  in  a  short  time,  when  it  can  be 
cut  to  the  sizes  required,  and  laid  between  sheets  of  soda  paper,  in 
which  way  it  can  be  kept  fresh  for  several  days. 


CHAPTER  XI. 

STOPS   AND   SWING-BACKS. 

some  lenses,  all  of  the  stops  or  diaphragms  are  cut  in  one 
circular  piece  of  brass,  which  revolves  in  the  lens  tube,  each 
one  of  the  holes  stopping  by  turn  exactly  in  the  center.  In  other 
lenses  the  stops  are  inserted  separately,  and  are  of  from  three  to 
seven  or  eight  different  sizes. 

The  smaller  the  stop  used  the  more  detail  will  be  shown  in  the 
picture,  and  the  longer  time  will  be  required  for  the  exposure. 
It  is  not  advisable  in  all  photographs  to  have  the  detail  as  fine 
and  exact  as  it  can  be  made,  but  in  taking  a  picture  of 
a  building,  especially  if  it  is  a  building  containing  much  orna- 
mentation, delicate  carving  or  relief  work,  fine  arches,  etc.,  it  is 
desirable  to  have  the  detail  come  out  clear  and  distinct.  So,  too, 
with  interiors.  In  such  cases  a  small  stop  should  be  used. 
Small  stops  give  a  sharp  focus,  and  tend  to  bring  objects  near 
and  distant  into  the  same  focus,  and  with  equal  distinctness. 
Although  this  is  not  as  the  eye  sees  things,  it  is  yet  sometimes 
desirable. 

With  large  stops,  if  we  adjust  the  focus  to  a  certain  distance, 
objects  nearer  and  beyond  are  out  of  focus  and  indistinct.  There- 
fore, if  we  wish  to  take  a  picture  of  a  house  in  the  country,  with 
a  group  of  people  sitting  on  the  lawn  in  front,  and  show  all 
clearly,  we  must  use  a  small  stop. 

Large  stops  give  more  detail  to  the  shadows,  that  is,  the  shaded 


STOPS    AND    SWING-BACKS.  89 

portions.  Large  stops  give  boldness ;  they  make  the  more  artis- 
tic pictures.  They  should  be  used  when  taking  moving  objects, 
because  they  require  so  much  less  exposure.  In  landscapes 
never  use  the  smallest  stop,  nor  in  using  the  swing-back;  but 
rather  always  use  the  largest  stop  that  will  give  sufficient  sharp- 
ness to  the  main  object. 

Stops  are  usually  numbered  with  reference  to  the  focal  length 
of  the  lens,  as  f8,  fll.3,  f!6,  f22.6,  f32,  M5.2,  f64,  which  means 
that  f8  is  one-eighth,  f64,  one-sixty-fourth,  the  focal  length,  etc. 
Therefore,  if  the  focal  length  is  eight  inches,  f 8  will  be  one  inch 
in  diameter,  f  16,  one-half  inch;  f 32,  one-quarter  inch,  etc. 

The  size  of  stop  regulates  the  duration  of  the  exposure,  the 
smaller  the  stop  the  longer  the  exposure,  inversely  in  proportion 
to  the  squares  of  their  diameters.  Therefore  if  a  stop  of  one- 
half  inch  diameter  required  for  a  certain  view  two  seconds  expos- 
ure, a  stop  of  one-quarter  inch  would  need  eight  seconds,  and  one 
of  one-eighth  inch,  thirty-two  seconds,  while  another  of  one  inch 
would  need  only  one-half  second.  If,  therefore,  experience  has 
taught  us  the  proper  exposure  to  give  with  an  f!6  stop,  it  will 
be  a  simple  calculation  to  tell  the  necessary  exposure  for  any 
other  stop. 

THE   SWING-BACK 

Is  used  to  prevent  distortion  when  tilting  the  camera  to  take 
in  a  tall  building;  also  to  bring  a  distant  and  near  object  into 
focus  at  same  time. 

"We  focus  on  a  distant  object  and  find  the  foreground  out  of 
focus,  because  the  focus  is  shorter  for  distant  views  than  for 
near  objects.  For  distant  objects,  we  draw  the  lens  nearer  the 


90  THE    AMATEUR    PHOTOGRAPHER'S    HAND   BOOK. 

ground-glass  to  get  the  focus;  for  near  objects  the  lens  needs  to 
be  further  from  the  glass.  To  bring  both  in  focus,  we  focus  on 
a  point  in  the  center  of  the  ground-glass;  about  half  way  be- 
tween foreground  and  the  distant  object.  In  one  case  the  focus 
falls  a  little  behind  the  ground-glass,  in  the  latter,  it  falls  in 
front.  So  we  use  the  swing-back,  which  we  suppose  to  swing  on 
its  center,  drawing  back  a  little  the  upper  part  (the  foreground), 
which  pushes  forward  the  lower  part  (distance),  and  this  will 
bring  both  in  focus,  and  at  the  same  time  it  does  not  disturb 
the  middle  distance,  as  that  falls  in  the  center  of  the  ground- 
glass,  which  practically  remains  in  about  the  same  place. 

So  with  the  side-swing.  In  taking  a  picture  with  some  object, 
a  tree  for  instance,  near  us  on  the  right,  to  bring  it  into  focus 
we  swing  back  the  left  side  of  the  ground-glass,  on  which  the 
tree  shows,  till  it  comes  in  focus,  swinging  it  back  just  enough 
to  bring  that  side  in  focus  without  disarranging  the  focus  of  the 
more  distant  view.  When  making  use  of  the  side-swing  or 
swing-back,  we  can  employ  a  larger  stop  than  usual,  and  still 
preserve  the  depth  of  focus  to  obtain  which  a  small  stop  is  ordi- 
narily used.  A  picture  is  said  to  have  depth  of  focus,  when  the 
foreground  and  distance  are  both  in  focus,  details  showing  plainly 
in  both.  From  the  artist's  stand-point,  details  everywhere  are 
not  admissible. 


CHAPTER  XII. 

LANDSCAPES. 

T  ANDSC APE  photography  is  the  most  healthful,  instructive^ 
-*~^  inspiring  and  delightful  branch  of  the  beautiful  art.  It  leads 
one  into  the  wholesome  air  of  the  country,  to  the  lakes,  sea-shore 
and  the  mountains,  to  quiet  dales  and  laughing  streams,  to  early 
morning  tramps ;  teaches  him  to  study  nature  and  observe  her 
varying  moods ;  reveals  to  him  visions  of  the  picturesque  and  the 
beautiful,  that  without  this  incentive  would  have  remained  to 
him  unseen. 

There  is  no  royal  road  for  the  landscape  photographer ;  patient 
study  and  intelligent  observation  are  constantly  required.  He 
must  study  pictures  that  attract  him,  to  see  wherein  lies  their 
charm.  The  finest  camera  and  the  highest  priced  lens  are  not 
the  essential  things,  but  the  knowledge  how  to  use  them.  A 
picture  by  one  of  our  great  painters,  a  modest,  quiet  man  of  rare 
insight,  depicts  a  meeting  of  two  hunters ;  one,  a  sportsman  with 
his  complete  and  elegant  outfit,  with  no  game,  is  showing  his 
expensive  breech-loader  to  the  other,  a  lank,  seedy  countryman, 
with  nothing  about  him  to  indicate  a  hunter,  but  an  old,  muzzle- 
loading,  single-barrelled  gun,  and  a  score  or  more  of  ducks. 
And  our  fine  sportsman  seems  to  sigh  as  he  says,  "  why  can't  I 
get  them  ? " 

The  introduction  of  figures  and  of  animals  in  landscape  is 


92 

usually  desirable,  but  they  should  never  be  made  too  prominent. 
There  should  be  a  fitness  about  the  figures,  they  should  look  as 
if  they  belonged  in  the  picture.  Naturally  therefore,  it  would 
be  a  defect  to  have  them  exactly  in  focus,  or  be  rendered  with 
fine  details,  unless  the  object  is  to  take  the  picture  of  the  group  of 
people  or  of  the  animals ;  in  which  case  the  landscape  is  sacrificed 
to  the  portraiture.  Many  landscape  views  are  failures,  through 
the  introduction  of  people  in  the  immediate  foreground,  staring 
at  the  camera  as  if  they  had  rushed  in  where  they  did  not  belong 
and  were  not  wanted,  to  "  get  their  pictures  taken."  Those  who 
have  tried  to  take  views  of  charming  bits  of  scenery  in  our  pub- 
lic parks,  know  what  a  desire  some  people  seem  to  have  to  get 
into  the  view ;  and  stop  where  they  are  entirely  out  of  place. 

For  pictorial  effect  all  figures  should  appear  unconscious  of 
anything  like  posing. 

The  chief  feature  in  the  landscape  should  not  be  placed  in  the 
center  of  the  plate,  nor  should  the  picture  seem  to  divide  itself 
into  two  equal  parts.  The  point  of  view  must  therefore  be  care- 
fully selected,  setting  up  the  camera  in  different  places  to  try  to 
get  the  best  effect. 

A  small  stream  in  the  northern  part  of  Illinois  is  often  ex- 
plored by  those  summering  in  its  vicinity,  who  have  heard  of  its 
varied  and  picturesque  scenes.  A  young  lad  took  his  little  skiff 
one  July  day,  with  a  lunch  and  a  twelve  dollar  camera,  and  spent 
the  whole  day  on  this  stream,  rowing  back  and  forth  sixteen  or 
twenty  miles.  He  had  six  plates  with  him,  and  when  he  returned 
at  night,  it  was  a  matter  of  some  surprise  that  he  had  only  made 
three  exposures.  He  set  up  his  camera  to  take  others,  but  some- 
thing about  the  light  or  the  shadow  did  not  suit  him,  and  he 


LANDSCAPES.  93 

seemed  content  with  what  he  had  secured.  He  did  his  own 
developing,  and  the  result  was  three  beautiful  pictures,  two  a 
quarter  size  and  one  a  5  x  8.  A  week  later,  two  older  amateurs, 
of  large  experience,  with  fine  cameras  and  Dallmeyer  lenses,  spent 
a  forenoon  on  the  the  same  stream  and  took  a  dozen  or  more 
views.  But  none  of  them  were,  as  pictures,  quite  equal  to 
those  made  by  the  lad  with  his  cheap  lens.  They  all  saw 
the  same  scenes,  but  the  younger  had  the  more  patience, 
and  perhaps  the  faculty  not  given  to  all,  of  discovering  the 
beautiful  in  common  things.  The  larger  of.  these  pictures  we 
have  used  as  an  illustration  in  the  chapter  on  "Ornamental 
Photography." 

In  general,  the  sun  should  not  be  directly  behind  the  camera, 
but  rather  at  one  side,  not  being  allowed,  of  course,  to  shine  into 
the  lens.  It  is  not  necessary  that  the  sun  should  be  up  at  all — 
very  charming  views  can  be  obtained  in  the  early,  bright  morn- 
ings of  spring,  before  sunrise. 

Moonlight  effects  can  be  had,  by  pointing  the  camera  directly 
toward  the  sun,  with  exposure  somewhat  longer  than  usual.  If 
such  a  view  is  taken  across  the  wavy  surface  of  a  lake,  and  care- 
fully developed,  it  will  give  a  very  striking  imitation  of  a  moon- 
light scene. 

Foliage  taken  during  a  light  shower,  produces  a  fine  effect. 
Foliage  generally  shows  to  better  advantage  when  taken  in  the 
spring  before  the  leaves  are  fully  developed,  than  later  in  the 
summer. 

Waves  and  the  surf  on  the  sea  and  great  lakes  are  best  taken, 
when  on  bright  days,  the  sun  is  concealed  behind  a  cloud.  In 
taking  views  of  still  water,  the  camera  should  not  be  turned 


94  THE    AMATEUR    PHOTOGRAPHER'S   HAND    BOOK. 

towards  those  portions  which  reflect  the  sky,  or  the  water  will 
look  like  the  sky,  white  and  harsh.  Still  water  looks  best  when 
it  has,  in  the  near  background,  trees  or  high  hills.  There  may 
be  occasions,  however,  when  it  is  necessary,  in  order  to  get  a 
particular  view,  to  have  in  the  foreground  water,  which  does 
reflect  the  sky,  in  which  case  the  exposure  can  be  lessened  by 
holding  the  slide  a  moment  in  front  of  the  lower  half  of  the  lens 
opening.  So,  too,  to  shorten  a  sky  exposure,  the  slide  can  be 
held  in  front  of  the  upper  part  of  lens. 

A  view  containing  sharp  shadows,  dark  foliage,  as  well  as 
much  light  in  other  portions,  or  in  other  words,  strong  contrasts, 
should  be  given  ample  exposure.  Long  exposure  tends  to 
soften  contrasts,  to  give  harmony,  and  if  carried  too  far, 
weakness.  Short  exposures,  while  apt  to  give  some  degree  of 
hardness,  will  make  more  brilliant  views,  and  give  strength  and 
character. 

Winter  views,  in  a  bright  light,  with  abundance  of  snow  and 
sharp  contrasts  of  light  and  deep  shade,  should  usually  be  given 
long  exposure,  using  a  small  stop. 

If  it  is  a  bright  day,  with  the  sun  obscured,  which  will  have 
the  effect  of  diminishing  the  contrast  between  light  and  shade, 
the  exposure  may  be  shortened. 

In  landscape  work,  after  one  has  acquired  some  familiarity 
with  development,  the  amateur  should  experiment  freely.  It 
would  be  well  to  take  the  same  view  on  half  a  dozen  plates,  half 
of  them  slow,  and  half  rapid,  giving  varying  lengths  of  exposure 
and  different  stops,  carefully  noting  the  results. 

For  example,  suppose  you  are  using  a  lens  of  eight  inches 
focus  and  a  Carbutt  B  16  plate.  Take  a  favorite  view, 


LANDSCAPES.  95 

and   make  nine  exposures    on  a   quarter    plate,  at  noon  on 
a  bright  day,  with  stops  and  times  as  follows: 

J-  inch  stop  (f64),  8,  12,  16  seconds, 
t    "       "    (£32),  6,  8,  10         " 
*    «       «    (f!6),  4,  6,  8, 

Each  plate  before  placing  in  the  holder,  should  have  a  number 
marked  with  a  pencil  in  one  corner,  to  identify  it  afterwards. 
These  marks  will  show  plainly  after  development.  Make  one 
print  from  each  plate  and  mount  them  all  on  one  large  card, 
marking  under  each  the  kind  of  plate,  time  and  stop.  From 
these,  if  the  development  has  been  successful,  you  can  select  one 
which  will  give  you  the  standard  stop  and  time,  for  such  a  sub- 
ject in  such  a  light,  and  from  this  in  a  short  time,  the  correct 
exposure  for  any  view  will  be  judged  instinctively.  The  proper 
exposure  is  the  one  most  important  point  to  be  learned  in  pho- 
tography, without  which  the  highest  excellence  is  impossible, 
and  this  can  only  be  learned  by  careful,  systematic  experiment. 
After  this  everything  is  simple. 

"We  advise  a  trial  of  orthochromatic  plates  in  general  landscape 
work.  These  should  always  be  used  when  there  are  varied  colors 
in  the  view,  especially  in  autumn,  when  the  leaves  have  changed 
to  purple  and  red,  and  in  photographing  flowers.  Colored  screens 
are  necessary  to  give  value  to  different  colors,  directions  for 
using  which  accompany  the  plates.  The  handiest  way  to  use 
such  screens,  is  to  have  them  in  the  diaphragms.  The  thin 
discs  of  glass  used  for  covering  microscopic  slides,  which  can  be 
colored  to  the  tint  desired,  can  be  attached  with  glue  to  the 


96 

center  of  the  diaphragm,  which  should  have  enough  of  the  metal 
cut  or  milled  out  around  the  opening,  to  allow  the  glass  to  lie 
flush  with  the  surface. 

"Whoever  wishes  to  produce  landscape  prints  of  a  high  order  of 
excellence,  will  give  them  an  artistic  finish  by  adding  clouds. 
It  requires  some  patience  to  do  this,  but  the  result,  if  carefully 
and  appropriately  done,  will  amply  repay  all  the  trouble  and 
extra  time. 

To  do  this  well,  a  number  of  cloud  negatives  should  be  made 
on  plates  of  different  sizes,  in  the  spring  or  early  summer  months. 
The  horizon  should  be  low,  so  as  to  take  in  as  much  of  the  clouds 
as  possible,  and  the  exposure  short.  The  plates  should  be  a  little 
under-developed  to  print  quickly.  The  exposures  should  be 
made  at  various  times  of  the  day,  to  secure  a  variety  of  negatives 
from  which  to  make  an  appropriate  selection  to  suit  the  different 
views  in  printing. 

To  use  these,  the  landscape  is  printed  as  usual,  the  sky  being 
masked  by  coating  that  part  on  the  back  of  the  plate  with  some 
opaque  color,  unless  it  is  so  intense  as  to  print  perfectly  white. 
Remove  the  negative,  and  cover  it  with  a  sheet  of  thin,  white 
paper,  on  which,  when  held  to  the  light,  the  outline  of  the  land- 
scape can  be  traced  with  a  pencil.  With  this  as  a  guide,  a  mask  of 
opaque  can  then  be  cut,  which  will  cover  as  near  as  practicable 
the  entire  landscape.  The  cloud  negative  is  then  to  be  placed  in 
the  frame,  with  the  print  upon  it,  and  while  printing,  the  mask 
must  cover  the  landscape,  and  be  gently  moved  to  and  fro  to 
avoid  a  harsh  line.  After  one  or  two  trials  there  will  be  no  diffi- 
culty in  this,  and  the  picture  will  appear  to  be  printed  from  a 
single  negative. 


CHAPTEE  XIII. 

PORTRAITS. 

OOD  portraits  can  be  made  in  the  house  by  the  amateur, 
if  he  pays  due  attention  to  lighting  the  subject,  and  gives 
sufficient  exposure.  The  sitter  should  be  near  a  window,  about 
three  or  four  feet  from  it.  If  sunlight  falls  on  the  window,  the 
light  should  be  diffused  by  hanging  over  the  window  a  thin,  white 
sheet,  or  covering  it  with  white  tissue  paper.  The  side  of  the 
sitter  away  from  the  light  will  be  shaded,  and  this  can  be 
lightened  by  placing  a  white  sheet,  or  anything  that  will  reflect 
light,  about  three  or  four  feet  distant,  and  in  such  a  position  that 
it  will  reflect  some  light  on  the  dark  side  of  the  face.  If  this  is 
not  sufficient,  the  operator  can  hold  a  -mirror,  about  two  feet 
square,  in  such  a  way  during  exposure,  that  it  will  throw  some 
light  on  the  shaded  portion  of  the  figure.  Both  sides  of  the  face 
should  not  be  equally  lighted,  as  it  will  produce  flatness.  The 
camera  should  stand  about  the  same  distance  from  the  window 
as  the  sitter,  or  a  trifle  nearer,  and  should  be  a  little  above  the 
head,  so  that  it  may  be  inclined  downwards.  Arrange  the  sitter 
gracefully,  avoiding  all  awkwardness  or  stiffness;  pay  attention 
to  the  position  of  the  hands,  that  they  are  in  focus  and  not  too 
conspicuous,  and,  if  the  whole  figure  is  to  be  taken,  see  that  the 
feet  are  not  out  of  proportion,  by  being  thrust  towards  the 


98  THE    AMATEUR    PHOTOGRAPHER'S    HAND    BOOK. 

camera.  Focus  on  the  eyes,  and  see  that  they  are  looking  in  the 
direction  the  face  is  turned.  A  quick  plate  should  be  used,  a 
medium  size  or  large  stop,  and  ample  exposure.  The  exposure 
should  be  three  or  four  times  as  long  as  an  out-door,  or  even 
longer  than  that,  according  to  the  light. 

The  time  required  to  take  a  portrait  in  the  house,  can  only  be 
learned  by  experiment.  Let  some  obliging  friend  sit  for  you, 
and  take  his  picture  several  times  over,  using  different  stops  and 
exposures.  Plates  are  comparatively  cheap,  and  this  will  be  a 
valuable  lesson. 

The  background  should  not  be  BO  near  the  sitter,  that  shadows 
will  fall  upon  it,  and  should  be  of  a  drab  or  pearl  color.  For 
flash-light  portraits  at  night,  we  prefer  a  background  of  black 
velvet,  ae  described  in  the  following  chapter.  This  also  makes 
an  admirable  background  for  portraits  taken  out  of  doors ;  a  black 
shawl  will  answer  as  well.  Against  such  a  background,  profile 
views  show  finely.  Out-door  portraits  should  not  be  taken  in  the 
sunlight  but  in  diffused  light,  in  the  shade,  or  the  north  side  of 
a  building. 

Do  not  wastes  plates  trying  to  take  portraits  on  a  dark  or 
cloudy  day  in  the  house,  or  in  the  fall  or  winter  too  late  in  the  after- 
noon. Especially  is  this  the  case  where  you  have  to  take  a  por- 
trait of  a  very  young  child  who  can  not  keep  still  long  enough 
for  the  proper  exposure. 

In  photographing  out  of  doors,  do  not  try  to  take  portraits  or 
groups  with  the  sky,  or  water  reflecting  the  sky,  for  a  background. 
In  such  cases  the  features  will  come  out  dark.  "We  saw  a  view 
lately,  of  a  group  of  people  on  the  upper  deck  of  a  lake  steamer, 
taken  towards  the  open  water  and  sky.  The  only  one  showing 


LANDSCAPES.  99 

plainly  in  the  print,  was  a  lady  who  happened  to  have  behind 
her  the  black  smoke-stack.  Had  the  steamer  been  headed  the 
other  way,  towards  the  high  hills,  the  portraits  would  all  have 
been  good. 


CHAPTEK  XIV. 

ON  INTERIORS. 

T.NTERIORS  are  too  often  neglected  by  the  amateur  for  want  of 
-*-  the  proper  lens,  the  patience  requisite  for  the  long  exposure, 
and  the  fancied  difficulties. 

The  lens  should  be  a  "  wide  angle,"  to  take  in  as  much  of  the 
interior  as  possible,  capable  of  showing  three  sides  of  a  room.  A 
bright  day  should  be  selected,  to  give  the  greatest  quantity  of 
light  in  the  room,  and  this  should  be  diffused  by  hanging  white 
sheets  over  the  windows  furnishing  the  light,  taking  care  that  it 
does  not  shine  directly  into  the  lens.  If  a  window  comes  in 
view,  it  should  be  covered  with  dark  cloth,  hung  inside  the  win- 
dow frame,  and  when  the  exposure  is  nearly  complete,  this  cloth 
can  be  removed  for  a  few  seconds. 

In  focusing,  the  camera  must  be  level,  to  have  perpendicular 
lines  show  correctly.  A  piece  of  white  lace,  or  something  of  the 
kind,  laid  over  a  chair  at  the  chosen  distance,  will  be  an  easy 
thing  to  focus  on.  Use  the  smallest  stop,  as  details  and  "  depth 
of  focus "  are  wanted.  A  rapid  plate  should  be  used,  as  the 
time  will  be  long  in  any  case,  and  over-exposure  need  not  be 
feared.  In  a  fairly  lighted  room,  a  quick  plate  may  require  half 
an  hour;  in  a  dim  light,  half  a  day.  Therefore  choose  a  bright 
day,  but  let  no  sunlight  in  the  room.  The  artistic  skill  and  taste 
of  the  operator  will  have  ample  swing  in  arranging  the  various 


ON    INTERIORS.  101 

articles,  furniture  and  ornaments,  to  make  an  attractive  picture. 
Polished  surfaces  of  chairs  or  tables  may  reflect  light;  they 
should  be  moved  or  partly  covered  to  avoid  the  unpleasant  shine. 

In  photographing  interiors,  it  is  sometimes  desirable  to  take 
the  view  towards  an  open  window,  showing  not  only  the  interior 
plainly,  but  also  the  landscape  without.  The  simplest  method 
we  have  found  to  accomplish  this  result,  is  to  give  a  double 
exposure,  one  by  daylight  for  the  landscape,  and  the  last  for  the 
interior,  by  flash  light  after  dark,  it  being  understood  that  the 
camera  must  remain  in  exactly  the  same  position  for  both.  The 
focus  should  be  made  on  the  interior,  with  the  stop  used  for  flash 
light,  and  the  landscape  taken  with  a  small  stop.  Then,  leaving 
the  camera  in  position,  make  the  second  exposure  by  flash  light 
after  dark,  with  the  larger  stop,  remembering,  of  course,  to  leave 
the  window  in  the  same  condition,  curtain  drawn  aside,  and  sash 
up  as  before. 

Interiors  can  be  taken  by  gas  light,  using  the  most  rapid  plates 
and  long  exposure.  The  light  should  for  this  purpose  be  as  bril- 
liant as  possible,  and  not  come  from  any  point  where  it  can  shine 
into  the  lens. 

„  PLASH   LIGHTS. 

Interiors  and  portraits  can  be  advantageously  taken  by  using 
the  magnesium  flash  light.  In  using  this,  care  must  be  taken 
to  procure  a  magnesium  compound  that  is  perfectly  safe,  and 
especially  should  one  be  careful  in  igniting  it.  We  think  the 
magnesium  cartridges  prepared  by  the  Scovill  and  Adams  Co. 
are  safe  to  handle,  and  they  give  careful  directions  for  their  use. 
The  cartridge  should  be  placed  on  an  old  plate  or  something  of 


102  THE    AMATEUR    PHOTOGRAPHER'S    HAND    BOOK. 

that  kind,  at  the  side  of  the  camera  and  about  on  a  level  with  it, 
and  a  little  back  of  the  lens.  A  large  sheet  of  white  paper  or 
a  white  cloth  sheet/  should  be  placed  behind  the  flash,  to  reflect 
the  light  on  the  object  to  be  photographed.  There  should  be  an 
abundance  of  light  (gas  or  lamp  light)  in  the  room,  so  arranged 
that  it  will  light  up  the  subject  well,  and  avoid  disagreeable 
reflections.  Focus  on  a  lighted  candle  or  lamp  placed  at  the 
point  which  is  to  be  in  focus,  and  remove  this  before  picture  is 
taken.  Use  very  rapid  plates  and  a  comparatively  large  stop. 
When  all  is  ready,  draw  the  slide,  light  the  fuse  and  remove  the 
cap  from  lens,  replacing  it  immediately  after  the  flash.  Plenty 
of  light  in  the  room  serves  to  eliminate  the  dark  shadows  caused 
by  the  brilliant  flash.  Where  portraits,  or  groups  are  taken,  it  is 
well  to  have  a  black  screen  behind  the  sitters  to  absorb  the  shad- 
ows, i 

If  pure  magnesium  is  used  for  the  flash  it  should  be  ignited 
by  means  of  a  long  taper.  There  are  many  contrivances  for  sale 
by  the  trade  which  are  quite  safe  to  use,  care  being  observed  to 
follow  the  directions  carefully. 


CHAPTEK  XY. 

HINTS   ON   COPYING. 

the  winter  the  amateur  ean  fill  up  his  time  and  find  ample 
use  for  his  camera  in  making  portraits,  interior  views,  copy, 
ing  and  reducing  pictures,  and  making  lantern  slides  and  trans- 
parencies. He  will  have  frequent  occasion  to  copy  large  photo- 
graphs and  engravings  or  paintings,  for  the  purpose  of  making 
book  illustrations,  or  for  lantern  slides.  In  copying  an  engraving 
or  photograph,  or  a  painting,  the  process  for  each  is  very  much 
the  same,  the  main  difference  being  in  the  time  required  for  the 
exposure,  and,  in  the  case  of  copying  paintings,  the  special  kind 
of  plate  to  be  used  for  that  purpose.  To  copy  a  photograph  or 
engraving  with  the  ordinary  camera,  the  picture  should  be  hung 
or  clamped  to  an  upright  frame,  where  its  surface  can  be  made 
perfectly  flat  and  smooth.  The  picture  should  be  so  hung  that 
it  may  receive  a  strong  light,  not  sunlight.  If  you  have  a  win- 
dow facing  the  north,  the  picture  should  be  near  the  window  and 
partly  facing  it;  then  the  camera  should  be  placed  directly  and 
squarely  in  front  of  the  picture,  the  lens  being  of  the  same  height 
as  the  center  of  the  picture.  Care  must  be  taken  to  have  the 
camera  directly  in  front  of  the  picture,  so  that  the  picture  will  be 
exactly  parallel  to  the  ground-glass ;  then  there  will  be  no  danger 
of  any  distortion  in  the  negative.  This  is  of  the  utmost  import- 
ance. No  true  copy  of  a  picture  can  be  made  unless  the  plate  or 


104 

ground-glass  and  picture  are  parallel,  A  slow  plate  is  the  best 
to  use  for  copies.  In  copying  on  cloudy  days  in  the  fall  or 
winter,  we  prefer  very  quick  plates.  The  camera  is  placed  near, 
or  at  some  distance,  from  the  picture,  as  the  copy  desired  is  to  be 
large  or  small.  In  making  a  copy  for  a  lantern  slide  it  must, 
however,  be  remembered  that  the  picture  is  to  be  copied  across 
the  small  plate,  and  not  the  long  way  of  the  plate,  in  the  same 
way  that  pictures  are  always  printed  upon  lantern  slides.  The 
ground-glass  should  be  marked  in  pencil  so  that  it  will  show  the 
location  of  all  smaller  size  plates ;  that  is,  if  your  camera  is  a  5x8 
size,  you  should  lay  out  on  the  ground-glass  the  position  of  the 
J  size  and  4x5,  and  also  of  the  4Jx6£,  which  is  the  half -size  plate, 
if  you  expect  to  use  them.  Then,  when,  as  in  the  present  case, 
you  wish  to  make  a  copy  on  a  quarter  size  plate,  the  picture,  when 
in  focus  on  the  ground-glass,  will  show  whether  the  camera  should 
be  moved  nearer  to,  or  be  set  further  back,  in  order  to  get  the  copy 
of  the  desired  size.  In  copying  it  is  essential  that  the  focus 
should  be  as  exact  as  possible,  and,  to  aid  in  getting  a  fine  focus, 
it  is  a  good  plan  to  lay  a  piece  of  printed  paper  against  the  pic- 
ture and  focus  with  the  magnifying  glass  on  the  letters,  remember- 
ing to  remove  the  paper  before  making  the  exposure.  When  the 
focusing  is  done,  a  small  stop  should  be  inserted  in  the  lens,  and 
the  cap  put  on  so  that  it  can  be  removed  easily,  which  must  be 
done  without  jarring  the  camera  in  any  way.  The  time  of  expos- 
ure will  vary  according  to  the  subject  to  be  copied.  We  may 
say  that,  using  an  f32  stop,  the  time  will  vary  from  50  seconds 
to  5  minutes.  An  ordinary  engraving  or  photograph  that  has 
a  dark,  strong  tint,  will  require  less  exposure  than  a  picture 
printed  light  or  altogether  in  half  tone. 


HINTS   ON    COPYING.  105 

Highly  burnished  photographs,  especially  such  as  are  not  flat, 
are  difficult  subjects  to  copy.  The  light  must  be  so  arranged 
that  no  part  of  the  glazed  surface  will  reflect  any  band  of  light 
into  the  camera. 

To  photograph  white  statuary  requires  long  exposure,  and 
screens  properly  adjusted  to  light  up  the  subject.  A  white 
screen  should  be  used  over  the  window  to  diffuse  the  light. 
If  circumstances  admit,  altogether  the  best  arrangement  is  to 
photograph  statuary  out  of  doors,  in  the  shade,  with  a  black 
screen  for  a  background.  In  developing,  use  more  than  the  usual 
quantity  of  No.  1,  to  secure  great  intensity. 

An  engraving  in  outline,  simply  black  lines,  will  require  long 
exposure,  perhaps  three  times  the  exposure  of  an  ordinary  photo- 
graph. A  copy  of  a  printed  page  or  of  a  letter  in  black  ink  will  need 
long  exposure,  and  also  long  and  intense  development.  Copies  of 
paintings  should  be  made  always  with  orthochromatic  plates,  and 
the  painting  should  be  so  hung  for  copying  that  there  is  no  bright 
light  reflected  from  it  into  the  camera.  The  light  illuminating 
the  painting  must  come  from  directly  in  front,  to  avoid  little 
shadows  that  might  be  caused  by  oblique  light  falling  on  thick 
patches  of  paint.  If  any  doubt  exists  as  to  the  proper  exposure 
to  be  given,  it  is  safer  to  lean  to  the  longer  time.  It  has  fre- 
quently been  our  experience  in  copying  engravings  that  the  dif- 
ference of  one  or  two  minutes  in  the  exposure  made  no  differ- 
ence in  the  quality  of  the  negatives,  provided  only  that  time 
enough  was  given. 


CHAPTER  XYL 

LANTERN  SLIDES. 

T"  ANTEKN"  slides  by  the  dry -plate  process  are  made  either  by 
•*-^  contact  printing  or  by  reduction  in  a  reducing  camera.  In 
the  latter  case  the  slides  can  be  made  direct  from  any  larger  neg- 
ative, provided  that  the  negative  is  not  too  large  to  be  used  in  the 
reducing  camera.  In  making  lantern  slides  by  contact,  the  most 
convenient  size  for  the  negative  is  a  quarter  size,  although  slides 
can  be  made  by  contact  from  larger  negatives  in  those  cases 
where  only  a  portion  of  the  negative  is  required  to  be  copied. 
As  the  simplest  method  of  making  slides  is  by  contact,  we  will 
confine  our  present  observations  to  a  description  of  that  process. 
Lantern  slides  are  made  on  plates  specially  prepared  on  thin 
glass  3J^  x4  inches  in  size.  They  are  usually  made  in  the  even- 
ing by  lamp  or  gas-light,  and  in  the  ordinary  printing-frames. 
They  can  be  printed  by  daylight,  but,  as  that  light  is  so  much 
stronger  than  artificial  light  the  slides  print  in  a  much  quicker 
time,  and  consequently  the  danger  of  over  or  under-exposing  is 
very  much  increased.  Where  gas-light  is  available  we  much  pre- 
fer that,  but  in  places  or  towns  where  there  is  no  gas,  what 
is  known  as  a  No.  2  kerosene  burner  will  take  its  place.  In 
using  gas-light  care  should  be  taken  to  maintain  as  even  a  pres- 
sure in  the  gas,  and  consequently  as  even  a  brilliancy  in  the  light, 


LANTERN    SLIDES.  107 

as  possible.  To  do  this  the  gas  burner  should  be  unscrewed  and 
a  little  wad  of  fine  cotton  wool  inserted,  which  will  somewhat 
check  the  flow  of  gas  and  allow  it  to  burn  with  a  more  even 
flame.  Should  we  not  do  this  the  gas  is  liable  to  flare  up  at 
times,  from  too  great  pressure  in  the  main,  and  give  more  light 
than  we  should  expect,  thereby  tending  to  over-expose  the  plates. 
In  printing  the  slides  the  negative  is  placed  in  the  printing 
frame  as  in  ordinary  paper  printing,  and  the  thin  plate  placed 
upon  it,  with  the  two  film  sides  in  contact.  Care  should  be 
taken  to  see  that  there  is  no  dust  on  either  of  the  two  plates 
when  they  are  thus  placed  in  contact.  It  is  well  also  to  place 
back  of  the  slide  a  piece  of  black  cloth,  cut  to  the  proper  size. 
The  frame  being  filled,  (and  it  is  perfectly  safe  to  fill  the  frames 
with  these  plates  while  the  gas  is  turned  down  to  a  blue  flame) 
it  is  held  in  the  hand  on  a  level  with  the  gas  jet,  and  about 
eighteen  or  twenty  inches  from  it,  and  the  gas  quickly  turned 
up.  The  time  required  for  the  exposure  will  depend  upon  the 
quality  of  the  negative.  This  time  may  vary  from  two  seconds 
to  twenty  seconds.  In  practice  we  have  found  the  general  time 
to  be  about  seven  seconds.  In  making  slides  with  a  kerosene 
lamp,the  printing-frame  should  be  covered  with  the  focusing  cloth, 
which  can  be  removed  at  the  moment  of  exposure  and  replaced 
immediately  at  the  close.  After  making  a  few  dozen  slides  it 
will  be  found  that  the  appearance  of  the  negative,  while  being  ex- 
posed to  the  gas-light,  will  indicate  the  proper  time.  Experience 
will  teach  this  accurately,  as  well  as  the  exposure  of  plates  in 
ordinary  landscape  photography.  Yery  intense  negatives,  will, 
of  course,  require  longer  exposure,  and  can  be  held  a  little  nearer 
the  light ;  very  thin  negatives  should  have  a  sheet  of  white  tissue 


108  THE    AMATEUR   PHOTOGRAPHER'S   HAND   BOOK. 

paper  on  the  printing  frame  which  will  considerably  increase  the 
time  of  exposure.  A  very  thin  negative  will  also  make  a  good 
slide  if  the  frame,  in  exposing  to  the  gas,  is  covered  with  a  sheet 
of  yellow  or  orange  glass.  In  this  case  the  exposure  will  need  to 
be  six  to  eight  times  as  long  as  usual.  It  has  been  our  expe- 
rience that  negatives  developed  with  hydrochinon  are  the  most 
even  printers  in  regard  to  time.  Negatives  developed  with  pyro 
are  extremely  uneven,  varying  from  very  quick  to  very  slow 
printers,  while  negatives  developed  with  ferrous-oxalate  are 
usually  quick  printers. 

After  the  exposure  has  been  made,  the  exposed  plates  can  be 
immediately  developed,  or  can  be  placed  in  a  box,  and  a  number 
of  other  plates  can  be  similarly  exposed.  For  the  development 
we  have  a  choice  of  several  different  developers,  all  of  which  are 
good.  We  can  use  either  hydrochinon,  pyro,  ferrous-oxalate 
or  eikonogen.  As  we  think  the  hydrochinon  developer  is  the 
safest  for  the  beginner  to  use,  we  will  use  that  for  our  first  slides. 
The  following  formula  we  have  found  always  to  work  well  on 
lantern  slides. 

No.  1. 
Sulphite  soda  crystals,  400  grs. 

Dissolve  and  filter,  and  add  water  to  make  6  oz. 

Hydrochinon,     -  -     120  grs. 

No.  2. 

Carbonate  potassium,        -          240  grs. 
"Water  to  make  6  oz. 

For  use  take  one  ounce  each  of  Nos.  1  and  2,  and  add  two 
ounces  of  water ;  the  quantity  of  water  added  can  be  increased  or 


LANTERN    SLIDES.  109 

decreased  as  may  seem  best.  With  this  developer,  the  image 
begins  to  make  its  appearance  in  about  thirty  seconds,  after 
which  it  proceeds  rapidly.  The  development  should  be  carried 
on  until  the  picture  comes  out  clear  and  distinct.  That  part  of 
the  plate  outside  of  the  image  should  be  carefully  watched  during 
the  development,  as  the  plate  should  be  removed  from  the  devel- 
oper before  these  parts  lose  their  white  color.  If  washed  and 
transferred  to  the  fixer,  while  this  part  of  the  plate  is  still  white, 
after  fixing  the  white  portion  becomes  clear  glass,  as  it  should  be 
in  a  perfect  lantern  slide.  If,  however,  the  plate  is  left  in  the 
developer  until  the  white  of  these  portions  has  turned  slightly 
gray,  or  a  little  darker  in  shade,  those  parts  after  fixing  will  be 
found  somewhat  clouded,  and  the  image  on  the  glass  in  conse- 
quence will  be  too  intense. 

The  fixer,  for  lantern  slide  plates  developed  with  hydrochinon, 
should  be  a  little  weaker  than  is  used  in  ordinary  fixing  baths. 
We  have  found  a  good  proportion  for  this,  is  one  ounce  hypo,  dis- 
solved in  ten  ounces  of  water.  A  weaker  solution  of  hypo,  will 
fix  lantern  slides;  we  have  used  it  as  weak  as  one  ounce  hypo,  to 
twenty-four  ounces  of  water.  The  exact  proportions  do  not 
appear  to  be  very  important,  but  we  think  it  should  always  be 
much  weaker  than  for  ordinary  plates.  After  fixing,  the  plates 
should  wash  in  running  water  for  half  an  hour,  then  carefully 
swab  under  the  tap,  with  a  wad  of  fine  cotton  wool  and  place  in 
the  rack  to  dry. 

Lantern  slides,  for  use  in  the  lantern,  require  to  be  mounted. 
The  usual  way  is  to  cover  the  slide  with  a  plate  of  thin,  clear  glass, 
placing  between  the  glasses  a  mask  of  thin  black  paper,  cut  out 
the  proper  shape  inside  to  show  the  picture,  and  then  the  edges  of 


110  THE   AMATEUR   PHOTOGRAPHER'S    HAND    BOOK. 

the  two  plates  are  bound  with  a  strip  of  black  needle-paper:  it  be- 
ing understood,  of  course,  that  the  film  side  of  the  slide  comes 
between  the  two  glasses.  Another  way,  which  we  have  found  to 
be  practically  as  good  as  the  above,  is  to  paint  the  slide  with 
Gihon's  Opaque,  applying  this  to  the  film,  covering  all  of  the 
plate  except  the  picture,  and  leaving  if  desired,  a  slight  margin 
of  clear  glass  around  the  image.  After  this  is  thoroughly  dried, 
it  can  be  covered  with  thin  glass  and  the  edges  bound  as  above. 


CHAPTEE  XYII. 

TRANSPARENCIES. 

npRANSPAKENCIES  are  usually  made  in  the  same  manner 
as  lantern  slides  by  exposing  to  gas  or  lamp  light.  In 
printing,  a  mat  or  mask  of  opaque  paper  should  be  used,  so  as  to 
leave  a  narrow  margin  of  clear  glass  outside  the  picture.  Trans- 
parencies  can  be  made  on  any  plate,  either  rapid  or  slow,  the 
latter  being  preferred.  As  in  all  contact  printing  both  the  nega- 
tive and  the  plate  should  be  carefully  dusted  before  placing  in 
the  frame:  and  it  is  well  to  place  a  dark  cloth  above  the  plate  to 
avoid  any  reflected  light  from  the  back  of  the  printing- frame. 
A  slow  plate,  of  sensitometer  equal  to  a  Carbutt  B  16,  requires 
an  exposure,  at  eighteen  inches  from  an  ordinary  gas-light,  from 
two  to  six  seconds^  according  to  the  intensity  of  the  negative; 
while  a  quick  plate  of  sensitometer  25,  needs  from  one-eighth  to 
one  or  two  seconds.  As  soon  as  the  exposure  is  made  the  plate 
can  be  taken  from  the  printing-frame  and  developed  imme- 
diately, or  placed  in  a  light-tight  box  and  developed  later  with 
others. 

The  transparencies  should  be  developed  in  the  same  way  and 
after  the  same  formula  as  the  lantern  slides,  but  the  development 
should  be  carried  a  little  further  and  be  made  somewhat  intense. 
When  finished  the  transparency  should  be  backed,  the  film  inside, 
with  a  sheet  of  ground  glass  or  imitation  ground  glass,  which  we 


112  THE    AMATEUR    PHOTOGRAPHER'S    HAND   BOOK. 

shall  describe  how  to  make  in  our  formulas  hereafter.  Then  it 
can  be  bound  at  the  edges  with  paper,  or  placed  in  metallic  frames 
kept  by  all  dealers. 

Some  dry-plate  makers  prepare  a  special  plate  for  transparen- 
cies, having  an  opal  or  ground-glass  finish  on  one  side,  which 
requires  simply  a  sheet  of  plain  glass  on  the  film  side  to  protect 
it  from  injury. 

A  very  neat  way  to  make  transparencies  is  to  print  them  by 
contact  and  gas-light  on  Eastman's  transferotype  paper.  These 
require  an  exposure  of  from  fifteen  to  forty  seconds,  and  should 
be  developed  with  the  hydrochinon  lantern  slide  developer. 
After  development  they  should  we  well  washed,  then  fixed  in 
hypo,  and  washed  again.  When  washed  the  print  should  be  laid 
face  down  on  a  sheet  of  clean,  clear  glass,  of  the  proper  size,  and 
the  water  removed  with  a  rubber  roller  or  squeegee.  The  glass 
and  the  print  should  then  be  laid  on  some  flat  surface,  with  a 
sheet  of  blotting  paper  on  the  back  of  the  print,  and  left  to 
dry  under  pressure.  When  dry  the  print  will  adhere  to  the 
glass,  and,  if  desired,  the  paper  can  be  removed  as  described 
in  the  directions  accompanying  the  package  of  transferotype 
paper,  and  backed  with  ground  glass. 

We  think,  however,  the  better  way  is  to  leave  the  paper  ony 
and  simply  back  it  with  plain  glass,  as  the  paper  is  a  most  excel- 
lent substitute  for  the  ground  glass. 

It  is  sometimes  of  advantage  to  duplicate  a  negative,  which  is 
done  by  first  making  a  transparency,  which  is  a  positive,  and  from 
that,  in  the  same  way,  a  second  transparency,  which  will  be  a 
negative.  In  the  same  way  a  new  and  stronger  negative  can  be 
made  from  a  very  weak  one. 


TRANSPARENCIES.  113 

Sometimes  one  may  have  occasion  to  make  a  transparency  for 
enlargement  from  a  negative  which  may  be  very  intense  in  cer- 
tain portions,  while  very  thin  in  others.  To  correct  these  in- 
equalities in  the  transparency  make  a  mask  of  thin,  white  paper  of 
the  proper  shape  to  cover  the  thin  portion,  which  can  be  sup- 
ported on  a  pasteboard  frame,  the  opening  in  which  is  the  size  of 
the  negative.  During  the  printing,  this  mask,  by  means  of  the 
stiff  frame,  can  be  held  close  to  the  printing-frame,  so  as  to  shield 
the  light  from  the  thin  parts,  allowing  it  to  act  on  those  which 
are  too  intense,  to  bring  out  detail,  the  mask,  -of  course,  being 
kept  constantly  moving.  A  new  negative  can  be  printed  by  con- 
tact from  a  transparency  so  made,  in  which  the  original  defects 
of  local  intensity  or  thinness  will  be  found  corrected,  the  result 
being  better  than  if  resort  were  had  to  chemical  means. 

Yery  pretty  blue  transparences  can  be  made  in  the  following 
way:  Dissolve  fifteen  grains  of  sheet  gelatine,  cut  into  fine 
pieces,  in  an  ounce  of  hot  water.  When  this  is  cold,  pour  a  por- 
tion of  it  on  a  sheet  of  clean  glass,  tilting  this  to  allow  the 
liquid  to  spread  over  the  surface,  and  stand  on  edge  to  dry.  This 
can  afterwards  be  sensitized  with  the  same  solution  we  use  for 
making  blue  paper  \>y  flowing  it  over  the  plate,  and  allowed  to 
dry  by  standing  on  edge. 

The  printing  and  developing  can  be  done  in  the  same  way  as 
with  blue  paper  Before  printing,  as  the  glass  cannot  be  re- 
moved from  the  frame  to  examine  it,  in  order  to  know  the  time 
required  for  the  exposure  it  will  be  necessary  to  make  a  blue 
print  on  paper  from  the  same  negative,  and  take  note  of  the  time 
required  for  that. 


CHAPTEE  XVIIL 

ENLARGING   AND  SEDUCING. 

HE  amateur  will  have  frequently  to  make  an  enlargement  or 
reduction  of  a  picture  or  photograph,  or  copy  exact  size ;  and 
to  enlarge  or  reduce  from  a  negative.  Reduction  from  a  picture 
can  be  done  in  an  ordinary  camera,  and  full-size  copies  can  also 
be  made,  if  they  are  not  to  be  larger  than  the  largest  size  of 
the  plate  used  with  the  camera,  by  attaching  a  cone  to  the  front, 


and  placing  the  lens  at  the  extreme  end  of  the  cone.    The  cut 
above  shows  how  this  is  arranged. 

A  different  arrangement  is  required  for  making  enlargements, 
and  we  therefore  give  an  illustration  of  an  enlarging,  copying  and 
reducing  camera. 


ENLARGING  AND  REDUCING.  115 

The  entire  length  of  this  is  about  five  feet,  and  it  is  suitable  for 
making  copies  either  full  size,  or  larger  or  smaller;  for  making 
positives  direct  from  negatives  in  either  size ;  for  making  nega- 
tives direct  from  transparencies  or  positives;  and  for  making 
lantern  slides  direct  from  large  negatives.  The  cut  shows  the 
lens  mounted  on  the  central  frame,  in  position  for  making  a  re- 
duction or  lantern  slide,  or  an  enlargement,  the  negative  being 
placed  in  one  of  the  kits  in  the  front,  with  the  film  side  towards 


the  lens.  Double  sets  of  kits  for  all  the  ordinary  sizes  of  plates 
usually  accompany  these  cameras,  for  use  in  the  plate-holders  and 
the  front;  also  a  table,  showing  the  location  of  the  lens,  with  re- 
spect to  the  front  and  ground-glass,  for  different  degrees  of  en- 
largement and  reduction,  for  lenses  with  a  focus  of  from  two  to 
nine  inches.  In  enlarging  or  reducing  from  a  negative,  the  liglit 
enters  through  the  negative,  and  the  camera  should  face  the  open 
sky.  If  trees  or  buildings  intervene,  the  camera  should  be  placed 
near  the  window,  with  a  white  board  or  mirror  on  the  outside, 
inclined  upwards  at  an  angle  of  forty-five  degrees,  to  reflect  the 
light  into  the  camera,  avoiding  sunlight.  The  time  of  exposure 


116  THE  AMATEUR  PHOTOGRAPHER'S  HAND  BOOK. 

will  depend  upon  the  amount  of  light,  the  quality  of  the  negative, 
the  sensitiveness  of  the  plate  or  paper,  and  the  degree  of  enlarge- 
ment. The  larger  the  copy  required,  the  longer  in  proportion 
must  be  the  exposure.  If  an  exposure  of  two  minutes  is  correct 
for  enlarging  a  4  x  5  to  an  8  x  10,  it  will  require  eight  minutes  to 
enlarge  to  16  x  20,  etc. 

The  correct  exposure  must  largely  be  a  matter  of  experiment. 
We  have  found  the  time  for  enlarging  on  bromide  paper  on  a 
bright  day  to  double  size,  (note  that  8  x  10  is  four  times  the  size 
of  4  x  5),  varies  with  different  negatives  from  about  one  and  a 
half  to  two  and  a  half  minutes ;  enlarging  from  a  4  x  5  transpar- 
ency to  an  8  x  10  Carbutt  16  plate  to  take  from  forty  to  ninety 
seconds,  with  an  f  32  stop ;  to  make  lantern  slides  on  a  bright  day 
to  vary  from  two  and  a  half  to  fifteen  minutes,  the  latter  extreme 
being  from  a  very  intense  negative.* 

;  In  experiments,  for  the  purpose  of  determining  the  correct  time, 
it  is  not  necessary  to  waste  large  plates  or  large  sheets  of  bromide 
paper,  as  a  small  piece  of  the  paper  or  a  quarter  plate  will  answer 
as  well,  to  receive  simply  a  portion  of  the  enlargement. 
>  In  enlarging  or  reducing  from  a  negative  or  transparency  use 
the  smallest  stop ;  in  enlarging  from  a  picture  or  photograph 
use  a  medium  size  stop.  In  the  latter  case,  if  a  small  stop  were 
used  it  would  have  the  effect  of  showing  too  plainly  the  imper- 
fections or  grain  of  the  paper. 

*As  showing  how  great  may  be  the  difference  between  a  bright  day  in  sum- 
mer and  a  cloudy  day  in  winter,  notice  the  following  experiments  which  the 
writer  tried  on  a  dull,  cloudy  day  in  February,  this  year :  To  ascertain  the 
time  required  to  enlarge  from  a  4x  5  to  8x10  on  a  16  sens,  plate,  he  exposed 
first  for  five  minutes,  then  ten,  fifteen  and  twenty  minutes,  and  the  latter  was 
found  to  be  the  correct  time,  a  stop  f45.2  being  used. 


CHAPTEE  XIX. 

ORNAMENTAL   PHOTOGRAPHY. 

HP  HEEE  is  scarcely  any  limit  to  the  different  ways  in  which 

"*-  photography  can  be  applied  ornamentally.  Photographs 
on  watches,  on  handkerchiefs,  on  collars  and  various  articles  of 
that  description ;  photographs  on  china  ware,  glass  ware,  and  in 
fact  photographs  on  every  thing.  "We  wish  to  describe  only  one 
or  two  processes  and  leave  it  to  the  ingenuity  and  patience  of  the 
student  to  apply  the  same  in  other  directions.  To  our  mind,  one 
of  the  prettiest  ways  in  which  the  camera  can  be  made  useful,  is 
to  photograph  a  bit  of  landscape,  or  a  head,  or  a  small  group  on 
letter  paper.  For  this  purpose  we  can  use  any  paper  suitable  for 
making  blue  prints,  or  the  plain  salted  paper.  Let  us  first  make 
some  blue  prints  on  letter  paper.  Suppose  we  take  a  sheet  of 
folio  paper  of  good  weight,  the  same  kind  that  we  use  for  our 
best  blue  prints,  and  cut  the  sheet  into  quarter  size.  The  size 
of  folio  paper  is  17  x  22  inches,  and  a  quarter  would  therefore 
be  8J-  x  11  inches.  .Now  if  we  fold  one  of  these  quarters  to  make 
a  four  page  sheet  of  note  paper,  the  size  would  be  when  folded 
5£  x  8£  inches.  We  do  not  need,  however,  for  our  present  pur- 
pose to  fold  the  paper,  but  merely  to  make  a  short  crease  in  it, 
in  the  center  of  one  side,  which  is  merely  to  show  where  the 
paper  will  be  folded  after  it  is  finished.  This  crease  is  merely  a 
guide  for  us  to  show  where  we  are  to  sensitize  the  paper  with 


118 

our  blue  solution.  "We  mark  a  number  of  sheets  in  this  way. 
We  then  prepare  a  few  drams  of  our  solution  as  described  in  the 
chapter  on  blue  prints,  and  apply  it  with  our  sponge.  To  lay  this 
on,  it  is  only  necessary  to  swab  in  one  direction  the  part  of 
the  paper  on  which  we  wish  to  print,  and  we  do  this  either  in  the 
upper  left-hand  corner,  or  the  right-hand  corner,  or  in  the  upper 
center,  or  across  the  whole  of  the  top.  If  we  wish  the  picture  in 


the  upper  left-hand  corner  when  folded,  and  we  know  about  the 
size  of  the  picture,  we  lay  on  enough  of  the  solution  to  surely 
cover  all  of  the  space  where  the  picture  is  to  go,  being  careful  to 
brush  near  the  crease,  which,  when  folded  will  be  the  left-hand 
and  the  upper  edge  of  the  paper.  After  the  solution  is  applied, 
it  is  not  necessary  to  hang  up  the  paper  to  dry,  but  it  can 
be  laid  on  a  table  or  newspaper,  or  anything  of  that  kind, 
where  it  will  dry  in  a  few  minutes.  When  it  is  dry,  the  paper 


ORNAMENTAL   PHOTOGRAPHY.  119 

should  be  neatly  folded  along  the  line  of  the  crease  which  we  have 
previously  made,  and  laid  away  in  a  dark  box,  till  wanted  for  use. 
Now  for  the  printing.  For  this  purpose  it  is  better  to 
use  what  are  called  vignette  papers,*  sets  of  which  are  for  sale 
by  all  dealers.  We  take  our  printing-frame,  and  lay  in  it  a 
sheet  of  plain  glass  (and  for  this  purpose  we  need  to  use 
a  frame  at  least  as  large  as  8  x  10);  then,  having  selected  our 
negative  from  which  we  wish  to  print,  say  a  head  or  small  figure 
on  our  paper,  we  select  a  vignette  paper  which  will  just  take  in 
this  head,  and  place  the  negative  in  the  frame,  face  up  with  the 
vignette  paper  underneath;  then,  with  some  strips  of  opaque 
paper,  we  cover  all  of  the  negative  which  we  do  not  wish  to 
use.  The  object  of  this  is  to  prevent  any  impression  being  made 
on  the  small,  sensitized  portions  of  the  note  paper,  which  may 
happen  to  fall  outside  of  our  vignette  paper.  It  will  be  seen,  of 
course,  that  the  negative  must  be  so  placed  that  it  will  be  held  in 
position  by  both  halves  of  the  back  of  printing-frame,  so  that  it 
will  not  be  moved  from  its  place  when  the  frame  is  partly  opened 
to  examine  how  the  printing  is  progressing.  After  this,  we  very 
carefully  lay  our  folded  paper  in  position  on  the  negative,  so  that 
the  head  will  come  in  the  corner  of  the  paper  where  we  wish  it 
to  be  printed.  We  close  the  frame  and  set  it  in  the  sunshine 
to  print.  As  we  are  printing  through  the  vignette  paper,  the 
time  required  may  be  about  twice  as  long  as  we  should  give  for 
ordinary  blue  prints.  When  it  has  printed  sufficiently,  we  take 
out  the  paper  and  develop  it  in  water  in  the  usual  way  and  hang 
up  to  dry,  and  when  it  is  nearly  dry  the  paper  should  be  placed 
between  sheets  of  smooth  blotting  paper  and  put  in  a  press,  or 
under  heavy  pressure,  where  it  will  dry  perfectly  smooth. 

*See  illustration,  opposite  page. 


120  THE   AMATEUR   PHOTOGRAPHER'S   HAND   BOOK. 

To  make  purple  or  black  prints  on  note  paper,  we  use  the  same 
size  paper  as  we  have  just  described,  and  salt  it  as  described  in 
the  chapter  on  plain  salted  paper,  and  with  our  silver  solution 
we  sensitize  simply  that  part  of  the  paper  on  which  we  wish  to 
print,  and  print  on  this  with  vignette  paper  as  described  above. 
The  prints  can  then  be  washed  and  toned  and  fixed  in  the  same 
way  as  prints  on  regular  salted  paper,  and,  after  being  washed 
and  dried,  pressed  to  shape.  When  this  is  neatly  done,  the  result 
will  be  very  gratifying  and  beautiful. 

We  give  an  illustration  of  a  sheet  of  note  paper  prepared  in 
the  manner  described,  which  is  not  as  fine  or  delicate  as  the 
amateur  can  make  for  himself. 

We  know  a  young  photographer  who  uses  his  camera  in  this 
way  to  decorate  and  illustrate  his  compositions  at  school. 

Another  one  who  photographs  his  little  sister's  head  on  the 
corner  of  her  invitation  cards  for  an  occasional  party. 

With  these  hints  an  ingenious  amateur  will  think  of  a  multi- 
tude of  ways  in  which  he  can  make  his  camera  a  delight. 

One  other  idea,  before  we  close  this  chapter.  In  engravings 
and  etchings  we  have  "  proofs  before  letters,"  "  artists'  proofs," 
and  "  remarque  proofs."  We  wish  to  show  how  the  young  pho- 
tographer can  make  of  his  prints  one  of  these,  "remarque 
proofs."  We  will  turn  back  to  chapter  X,  and  take  one  of  our 
prints,  with  broad  margin  on  plain  paper,  before  it  has  been  washed 
or  toned.  These  broad  margins  have  not  yet  been  exposed  to  the 
light,  and  can  still  be  printed  on,  and  under  the  lower  right-hand 
corner  of  the  picture  we  propose  to  print  the  head  of  the  artist 
photographer,  which  we  may  probably  find  among  the  negatives 
in  his  collection.  For  this  purpose  we  require  one  of  our  largest 


ORNAMENTAL    PHOTOGRAPHY.  121 

printing-frames,  ten  by  twelve,  or  eleven  by  fourteen  inches.  "We 
use  one  of  the  smallest  vignette  papers,  and  place  it  under  the 
negative  on  the  glass  in  the  frame  as  previously  described  in  this 
chapter.  We  then  have  to  cover  with  black  paper  all  the  glass  in 
the  frame,  excepting  the  space  for  the  vignetting,  to  prevent  the 
light  from  reaching  any  other  portions  of  our  paper.  "When  this 
is  done  we  lay  on  the  picture  so  that  the  head  to  be  copied  will 
come  in  the  right  place,  and  right  side  up,  and  expose  to  sunlight 
as  before.  After  the  printing  is  done,  the  prints  will  be  ready  to 
wash,  tone  and  fix. 

In  our  photo-gravure  of  a  "  remarque  proof "  it  was  not 
found  convenient  to  vignette  the  small  head.  This  picture,  "  On 
Nippersink  Creek,"  and  the  example  of  note  paper,  were  made 
from  negatives  which  were  entirely  the  work  of  a  young  lad, 
with  a  cheap  camera,  after  a  few  months'  experience.  They  are 
not  intended  as  illustrations  of  fine  photography,  but  simply  to 
make  more  intelligible  what  we  have  tried  to  explain. 


CHAPTER  XX. 

GENERAL  HINTS. 

~TT  is  well  for  the  amateur  to  accustom  himself  to  standing  on 
••"  either  side  of  the  camera  in  taking  views.  This  is  a  matter 
that  may  seem  to  be  of  trifling  importance,  yet  it  is  not  a  good 
plan  to  "  get  into  the  rut "  of  always  taking  one  position  when 
preparing  to  uncap  the  lens,  or  removing  the  slide,  otherwise 
mistakes  may  occur.  Elsewhere  we  have  advised  a  fixed  habit 
of  invariably  taking  plates  from  developer  and  fixer  and  washing 
in  the  same  manner,  but  it  is  different  in  using  the  camera  in 
the  field.  One  illustration  will  show  the  force  of  this. 

Two  amateurs,  whom  we  will  call  James  and  John,  of  consid- 
erable experience,  were  tramping  for  views  along  the  bank  of  a 
picturesque  stream,  and  both  hit  upon  the  same  spot,  a  scene  of 
rare  beauty.  The  bank  was  high  and  steep,  and  James  planted 
his  camera  close  by  the  water's  edge,  while  John  placed  his  a 
few  feet  behind  and  about  ten  feet  above  him  where  the  bank 
overhung  the  stream.  They  adjusted  their  focuses,  and,  to  make 
their  exposures,  were  obliged,  from  the  nature  of  the  ground,  to 
stand  on  the  left  of  their  cameras  to  withdraw  their  slides  and 
remove  the  caps.  The  exposures  were  made,  and  John  was^  re. 
placing  his  slide  when  he  suddenly  shouted  out  "  ha!  ha!  " 

Immediately  his  companion  looked  up  at  him,  and  in  a  rather 
provoked  tone  said  "What  are  you  laughing  at  up  there?" 


GENERAL  HINTS.  123 

"Well,"  said  John,  "I  pulled  out  the  back  slide,  and  spoiled 
my  plate." 

"  I  did  the  same  thing,"  said  James,  "  and  supposed  you  saw 
me  and  were  laughing  at  my  mistake.  And  the  worst  of  it  is 
that  I  spoiled  one  I  had  exposed  already." 

They  had  reversible-back  cameras,  and  each  one,  unconsciously, 
pulled  the  back  slide,  as  the  side  that  was  towards  his  right 
hand. 

PLATE-HOLDEES. 

If,  after  using  a  plate-holder  for  some  time,  signs  of  fog  are 
detected  in  the  plates  and  you  suspect  the  plate-holder  is  not 
light-tight,  you  can  glue  a  slip  of  velvet  over  the  slit  in  the 
holder  and  when  it  is  dry  cut  through  the  slit  with  a  sharp  knife. 
This  will  usually  make  the  holder  safe  to  use. 

When  filling  plate-holders  it  is  a  good  plan  to  make  a  pencil 
mark  in  one  corner  of  the  plate  corresponding  with  the  holder 
number.  This  is  indispensable  when  one  is  going  on  a  journey, 
intending  to  expose  a  goodly  number  of  plates  which  may  not  be 
developed  for  some  time  afterwards.  These  marks  will  show 
plainly  on  the  finished  negative,  and  will  serve  to  identify  it,  the 
number  of  the  holder  being  entered  in  the  record  book. 

TO  FOCUS  QUICKLY. 

Set  up  the  camera  and  focus  on  some  object  at  a  measured  dis- 
tance of  twenty  feet,  and  make  a  mark  on  the  camera  bed  on  a 
line  with  the  front,  with  the  figures  20  against  it;  do  the  same  at 
40,  60  and  100  feet.  You  will  learn  to  judge  these  distances 
with  sufficient  accuracy,  and,  the  distance  being  known,  the 


124  THE    AMATEUR    PHOTOGRAPHER'S   HAND    BOOK. 

focus  can  at  any  time  be  found  by  moving  the  front  to  the  re- 
quired line.  It  will  be  convenient  to  do  this  on  many  occasions 
when  there  is  not  time  to  use  the  ground-glass.  Objects  beyond 
one  hundred  feet  will  lie  in  the  same  focus  as  at  that  distance. 

MICROSCOPIC  PHOTOGRAPHS. 

To  make  a  photograph  of  any  object  for  use  in  the  microscope 
the  following  arrangement  is  advised : 

By  the  side  of  the  object  to  be  photographed,  and  exactly  on 
the  same  plane  with  it,  place  some  large  letters  which  you  can 
easily  obtain  from  some  large  hand-bill,  then  take  the  camera  far 
enough  away  until  the  letters  are  as  small  as  they  can  be  and  yet 
clearly  discernible  on  the  ground-glass  and  accurately  sharp  and 
distinct.  A  magnifying  glass,  of  course,  should  be  used  to 
examine  the  letters  on  the  glass;  at  this  distance  the  image  of 
the  object  to  be  copied  will  probably  be  too  small  to  be  seen  by 
the  naked  eye. 

The  exposure  can  be  made  in  the  regular  way. 

After  developing,  the  negative  should  be  examined  with  a 
microscope  to  see  that  the  details  are  brought  out  distinct  and 
clear,  and  from  this  negative  a  positive  can  easily  be  made  for 
use  in  the  microscope. 


For  suspending  paper  for  drying,  whether  salted  paper,  sensi- 
tized paper,  blue  paper  or  soda  blotting  paper,  in  fact  any  paper 


GENERAL    HINTS.  125 

or  print  which  does  not  curl,  we  know  of  nothing  so  handy  and 
inexpensive  as  the  ordinary  spring  clothes-pins. 

These  can  be  strung  on  tightly  stretched  cords  in  the  dark- 
room or  any  place  where  they  will  not  be  in  the  way. 

Formulas  vi  and  vm  are  excellent  for  bromide  and  photo- 
chloride  paper.  In  using  these  we  think  the  best  plan  is  not  to 
soak  the  paper  in  water  before  development  (as  is  customary 
with  the  ferrous-oxalate),  but  to  pour  the  solution  on  the  dry 
paper  laid  in  the  tray.  Wash  well  after  development  before  fix- 
ing. 

THE  "DETECTIVE"  CAMERA. 

We  have  had  and  enjoyed  most  heartily  a  detective  camera 
since  they  first  came  into  use.  We  have  used  them  on  nearly 
every  legitimate  subject,  and  think  we  understand  well  their  limi- 
tations. We  say  legitimate  subject,  because  it  is  not  uncommon 
for  persons,  who  should  know  better,  to  use  their  detectives  in  a 
way  tending  to  bring  reproach  upon  amateur  photographers. 
Whatever  else  it  may  be,  it  is  certainly  an  unpardonable  imper- 
tinence to  take  a  picture  of  a  stranger  without  permission,  espec- 
ially if  that  stranger  be  a  lady.  Be  gentlemanly  always,  and 
respect  the  rights  and  feelings  of  others. 

Yery  quick  plates  are  essential  for  success  with  these  cameras, 
and  abundance  of  light.  The  spring  and  summer  months  are  the 
best  times  of  the  year,  as  the  light  is  so  much  stronger.  The 
shutters  of  these  cameras  are  usually  adjusted  to  quick  and  slow 
movement.  The  clearest  and  sharpest  pictures  can  generally  be 
made  with  a  small  stop,  and  slow  movement  of  the  shutter,  though 
for  very  fast  moving  objects  the  largest  stop  and  quickest  expos- 


126  THE    AMATEUR    PHOTOGRAPHER'S   HAND   BOOK. 

ure  may  be  necessary.  It  is  highly  important,  however,  that  at 
the  moment  of  the  exposure  the  camera  should  be  held  perfectly 
still.  Therefore,  for  good  work,  the  exposure  should  not  be  made 
in  a  hurry.  In  very  shady  places,  under  trees,  there  will  not  be 
light  enough  for  good  work,  nor  in  cities  where  the  light  is 
obscured  by  smoke,  unless  in  the  direct  sunlight.  As  with  other 
cameras,  in  taking  views  of  buildings,  to  prevent  distortion,  the 
box  must  be  level. 

Detectives  are  excellent  for  making  views  for  lantern  slides, 
especially  if  a  quarter  plate  is  used  in  a  camera  made  for  plates 
of  a  larger  size.  From  a  lantern  slide  made  from  such  a  plate  an 
eight  by  ten  negative  can  be  made  in  an  enlarging  camera,  show- 
ing all  the  details  with  great  clearness. 

For  use  on  a  journey,  a  good  detective  camera  is  invaluable.  A 
trip  to  Alaska,  through  the  Yosemite,  a  month  on  a  Nile  steamer, 
through  Palestine  and  the  Orient,  a  summer  on  foot  through 
Switzerland, — what  a  wealth  of  illustration  could  we  bring  home 
with  our  detective!  If  there  had  only  been  such  a  thing  twenty- 
five  years  ago! 

All  things  considered,  we  think  if  we  could  have  but  a  single 
camera  we  should  certainly  choose  a  detective;  one  that  could 
also  be  used  on  a  tripod.  Do  not  waste  money  on  cheap  cameras 
here. 


CHAPTEE  XXI. 

BESIDUES. 

If  the  amateur  does  considerable  developing  and  printing  he 
should  save  the  following  waste  papers,  water  and  baths;  if  he 
does  but  little  with  his  camera,  the  slight  saving  will  hardly  be 
worth  the  trouble  and  time  required:  The  clippings  from  paper 
or  prints  containing  silver  (before  toning),  such  as  albumen  paper, 
plain,  bromide  and  photo-chloride  paper,  and  cotton  brushes  used 
for  sensitizing  plain  paper.  These  should  be  carefully  burned 
from  time  to  time,  as  a  sufficient  quantity  accumulates,  on  a  clean 
shovel,  or  in  an  iron  pan,  and  ashes  saved. 

The  first  two  waters  used  for  washing  plain  and  albumen  silver 
prints  should  be  poured  into  an  earthen  glazed  jar,  and  when  this 
is  nearly  full,  the  water  is  to  be  acidified  by  adding  muriatic  acid. 
A  saturated  solution  of  common  salt  is  then  added  (a  small  quan- 
tity will  be  sufficient),  which  will  precipitate  the  silver  to  the 
bottom  of  the  jar  as  chloride  of  silver.  This  should  be  allowed 
to  stand  until  all  the  silver  is  down,  when  the  water  can  nearly 
all  be  drawn  off  with  a  siphon,  or  carefully  dipped  out,  care  being 
taken  not  to  stir  up  the  silver.  The  chloride  can  then  be  scraped 
out  and  washed  in  clean  water,  and  added  to  the  ashes  from  the 
paper  after  drying. 

A  jar  should  also  be  kept  to  preserve  old  fixing  baths.  When 
this  is  nearly  full,  sulphuric  acid  is  added  to  the  solution  to 


128 

acidify  it,  ancTthe  silver  precipitated  by  the  addition  of  a  saturated 
solution  of  sulphide  of  potassium.  This  must  be  done  in  the  open 
air,  as  the  odor  is  very  offensive.  "When  the  silver  has  all  settled, 
the  solution  should  be  drawn  off  as  before,  and  the  deposit  scraped 
up,  washed  and  dried,  and  kept  in  a  special  box  by  itself. 

When  a  considerable  quantity  of  these  residues  has  accumu- 
lated, it  can  be  sent  to  a  silver  refiner  for  reduction.  If  the  ama- 
teur wishes  he  can  himself  reduce  the  silver  from  the  paper  ashes 
and  the  wash-water  residues  in  the  following  manner:  We  use 
for  this  purpose  a  small  blacksmith's  forge,  which  forms  a  part 
of  an  amateur  work-shop.  We  take  the  ashes  and  wash-water 
residue,  weigh  them,  and  mix  very  carefully  with  twice  their 
weight  of  sal  soda,  and  a  like  weight  of  carbonate  of  potash.  This 
mixture  is  then  put  in  a  crucible,  which  is  placed  in  the  forge 
and  kept  at  a  white  heat  till  the  mass  is  entirely  liquid,  after 
which  it  is  allowed  to  cool.  When  cold,  the  crucible  is  broken, 
and  out  comes  a  small  button  of  silver.  It  is  well  worth  trying, 
and  the  small  button  will  seem  worth  its  weight  in  gold. 


CHAPTER  XXII. 

FORMULAS. 

T~N  all  formulas  given  for  solid  measure  we  use  avordupois 
-•"  weight,  by  which  drugs  and  chemicals  are  usually  sold.  "When 
an  ounce  is  mentioned,  solid  measure  ,  we  mean  437J  grains. 
It  would  be  well  if  all  followed  this  rule,  or  any  one  rule,  as  it 
would  lead  to  less  confusion. 

In  formulas  of  Seed,  Cramer  and  Blair,  by  one  ounce  is  meant 
480  grains;  while  Carbutt,  Eastman,  and  some  others  use  an 
ounce  of  437^  grains. 


A  RELIABLE  HYDROCHINON  DEVELOPER   IN  ONE  SOLUTION. 

Sulphite  soda  crystals,       -       500  grains, 
Phosphate  soda  granular,        240       " 
Carbonate  soda  crystals,          500       " 
Water  to  make  16  ounces. 

Dissolve  and  filter,  and  add  hydrochinon,  100  grains. 

"When  dissolved,  filter  once  more.  For  instantaneous  expos- 
ures, use  full  strength.  For  long  exposures  add  from  one  to  two 
ounces  water  to  each  three  ounces  of  developer. 

9 


130  THE    AMATEUR    PHOTOGRAPHER'S   HAND   BOOK. 

II. 
HYDROCHINOU  DEVELOPER   IN  TWO  SOLUTIONS 

No.  1. 

Sulphite  soda  crystals,       -       500  grains, 
Phosphate  soda  granular,         120       " 
Water  to  make  8  ounces, 

Dissolve  and  filter,  and  add  hydrochinon,  100  grains. 

Filter  again  when  dissolved. 

No    2. 

Carbonate  soda  crystals,     -    500  grains, 
Phosphate  soda  granular,        120       " 
Water  to  make        -  8  ounces. 

When  dissolved,  filter. 

This  is  the  same  as  the  first  formula,  but  put  up  in  two  solu- 
tions. It  will  keep  fresh  for  at  least  a  year  in  the  dark  room.  It 
is  more  convenient  to  have  it  in  this  form,  allowing  the  use  of 
more  or  less  of  No.  1  as  desired. 

Use  equal  parts,  reducing  with  water  as  before. 

III. 

ANOTHER  GOOD  HYDROCHINON  DEVELOPBR. 

Sulphite  soda  crystals,  400  grains. 
Carbonate  soda,      "     400  grains. 
Water  to  make  8  ounces. 
Dissolve  and  filter,  and  add 
Hydrochinon,  60  grains. 
For  use  take  two  ounces  solution  and  add  two  ounces  water. 


FORMULAS.  131 

IY. 
STILL  ANOTHER  GOOD   HYDEOCHINON  DEVELOPER    IN  TWO  SOLUTIONS. 

No.  1. 

Sulphite  soda  crystals,  400  grains. 
"Water  to  make  4  ounces. 
When  dissolved  and  filtered,  add 
Hydrochinon,  60  grains, 


2. 

Carbonate  potassium,  200  grains. 
Water  to  make  4  ounces. 
Filter  when  dissolved. 

For  use  take  one  ounce  each  of  Nos.  1  and  2,  and  two  ounces 
water.  This  is  especially  good  for  timed  exposures. 

We  use  it  generally  for  copying. 

All  of  these  hy  drochinon  developers  can  be  used  repeatedly  as 
long  as  they  remain  clear.  After  use  they  should  be  filtered  into 
a  separate  clean  bottle. 

This  old  solution  will  not  keep  fresh  in  a  partly  filled  bottle, 
as  it  is  affected  by  the  air.  It  should  therefore  be  kept  in  a 
tightly  corked  bottle,  which  it  will  entirely  fill.  This  should  be 
observed  always  in  preserving  mixed  developing  solutions. 


132  THE   AMATEUR   PHOTOGRAPHER'S   HAND   BOOK. 

Y. 

HYDROCHINON  DEVELOPER  FOR  INSTANTANEOUS  EXPOSURES. 

Sulphite  soda  crystals,  200  grains. 
Carbonate  soda  crystals,  480  grains. 

Water  to  make  8  ounces. 
Dissolve  and  filter,  and  add 

Hydrochinon,  50  grains. 
For  ordinary  exposures  use  an  old  developer. 

VI. 

HYDROCHINOH     DEVELOPER,     FOR     LANTERN      SLIDES     AND     TRANS- 
PARENCIES. 

No.  1. 

Sulphite  soda  crystals,  500  grains. 
Water  to  make  8  ounces. 
Dissolve  and  filter,  and  add 

Hydrochinon,  125  grains. 

No.  2. 
Carbonate  potassium,  300  grains. 

•**i  r      ,  i 


Water  to  make  8  ounces. 
Filter  when  dissolved. 


For  use  take  one  ounce  each  of  Nos.  1  and  2,  and  from  one  to 
two  ounces  water. 

While  this  developer  is  most  excellent  for  lantern  slides  it  is 
also  equally  good  for  bromides  and  photo-chloride  prints.  It  is 
also  an  excellent  developer  for  dry  plates  generally. 

It  can  be  used  repeatedly  as  long  as  it  remains  clear. 


FORMULAS.  133 

VII. 

HYDROCHINON   DEVELOPER. 
FOB    UNDER-EXPOSED    INSTANTANEOUS  EXPOSURES. 


Sulphite  soda  crystals,  200  grains. 
Water  to  make  8  ounces. 
Dissolve  and  filter,  and  add 

Hydrochinon,  50  grains. 

No.  2. 

Carbonate  potassium,  50  grains. 
Caustic  soda  (sticks)  20  grains. 
Water  to  make  1  ounce. 
For  use  take  two  ounces  No.  1  and  one  to  two  drams  No.  2. 

Till. 

ANOTHER  HYDROCHINON  DEVELOPER. 

No.  1. 

Sulphite  soda  crystals,  400  grains. 
Water  to  make  6  ounces. 
Dissolve  and  filter,  and  add 

Hydrochinon,  50  grains. 
Bromide  potassium,  1  grain. 

No.  2. 

Caustic  soda  (sticks)80  grains. 
Water  to  make  5  ounces. 


134  THE   AMATEUR    PHOTOGRAPHER'S    HAND    BOOK. 

If  desired,  an  equal  weight  of  caustic  potash  can  be  substitu- 
ted for  the  caustic  soda. 

For  use  add  to  each  4  ounces  of  No.  1,  4J  drams  No.  2. 

After  use,  filter  into  a  separate,  clean  bottle.  This  bottle 
should  be  washed  clean  every  time  before  an  old  developer  is 
filtered  into  it. 

Use  repeatedly  as  long  as  it  remains  clear,  adding  each  time 
30  drops  of  No.  1  and  6  drops  No.  2. 

This  is  an  excellent  developer  for  dry  plates,  and  we  have 
found  it  to  work  well,  also,  with  bromide  and  photo-chloride 
paper. 

IX. 

EIKONOGEN    DEVELOPER. 

No.  1. 

Sulphite  soda  crystals,  120  grains. 
Water  to  make  8  ounces. 
Dissolve  and  filter,  and  add 

Eikonogen,  60  grains. 

To  dissolve  thoroughly,  the  bottle  containing  above  should  be 
well  shaken  every  few  minutes,  repeating  this  several  times. 

No.  2. 

Carbonate  potassium,  300  grains. 
"Water  to  make  4  ounces. 

Filter  when  dissolved. 

For  use  take  three  ounces  No.  1  and  one  ounce  No.  2. 


FORMULAS.  135 

X. 

EIKONOGEN  DEVELOPER  FOR  LANTERN  SLIDES. 

No.  1. 

Sulphite  soda  crystals,  250  grains. 
Water  to  make  8  ounces. 
Dissolve  and  filter,  and  add 
Eikonogen,  20  grains. 
No.  2. 

Carbonate  potassium,  32  grains. 
Water  to  make  1  ounce. 

For  use  take  two  ounces  No.  1  and  one  dram  No.  2. 
We  have  thoroughly  tested  this,  and  know  it  to  be  excellent. 

XL 

A    COMBINED   BIKONOGEN  AND    HTDROCHINON    DEVELOPER   FOR   LAN- 
TERN  SLIDES. 

No.  1. 

Eikonogen,  48  grains. 

Meta-bisulphite  potassium,  48  grains. 

Water  to  make  8  ounces. 
When  entirely  dissolved,  filter  and  add 

Hydrochinon,  48  grains. 
No.  2. 

Carbonate  potassium,  250  grains. 

Carbonate  soda  crystals,  250  grains. 

Yellow  prussiate  potash,  250  grains. 

Water  to  make  8  ounces. 
Filter  when  dissolved. 


136  THE   AMATEUR   PHOTOGRAPHER'S   HAND    BOOK. 

For  use  take  one  ounce  No.  1,  one  ounce  water,  and  forty  drops 
"No.  2.  The  image  should  make  its  appearance  in  about  a  rain., 
ute.  If  it  is  slow  in  coming  up,  add  a  half  dram  of  No.  2. 

XII. 

FERROUS-OXALATE   DEVELOPER. 

No.  1. 

Neutral  oxalate  potassium,  960  grains. 
Bromide  potassium,  8  grains, 
Hot  water  to  make  8  ounces. 

When  dissolved  and  cold,  add  oxalic  acid  till  it  turns  blue  lit- 
mus paper  red.  Then  filter. 

No.  2. 

Proto-sulphate  iron,  240  grains. 
Water  to  make  2  ounces. 
Sulphuric  acid,  2  drops. 
Filter  when  dissolved. 

For  use  pour  one-half  ounce  No.  2  into  two  ounces  No.  1. 

In  this  developer  the  iron  is  the  main  factor,  and  for  good  re- 
sults it  should  be  kept  fresh,  dissolving  only  the  quantity  named 
at  a  time. 

The  oxalate  solution  should  be  filtered  occasionally  to  keep  it 
clear. 


FORMULAS.  137 

XIII. 


SEED'S  PYRO  DEVELOPER. 


Sulphite  soda  crystals,  72  grains. 
Carbonate  soda  crystals,  48  grains. 
Pyrogallic  acid,  12  grains. 
Water  to  make  4  ounces, 
at  temperature  from  65  to  75  degrees. 

This  can  be  made  from  the  stock  solutions  previously  given, 
the  pyro  to  be  added  dry. 

XIV. 
CRAMER'S  PYRO  DEVELOPER  FOR  COLD  WEATHER. 

Sulphite  soda  crystals,  180  grains. 
Carbonate  soda  crystals,  45  grains. 
Pyrogallic  acid,  10  to  25  grains. 
Sulphuric  acid,  2  drops. 
Water  to  make  4  ounces, 
at  temperature  65  to  70  degrees. 

For  hot  weather. 

Sulphite  soda  crystals,  90  grains. 
Carbonate  soda  crystals,  22J  grains. 
Pyrogallic  acid,  10  to  20  grains. 
Water  to  make  4  ounces, 
and  keep  temperature  under  60  degrees. 


138  THE   AMATEUR    PHOTOGRAPHER'S   HAND    BOOK. 

XY. 


Sulphite  soda  crystals,  720  grains. 
Carbonate  soda  crystals,  300  grains. 
Bromide  potassium,  15  grains. 
"Water  to  make  16  ounces. 

To  every  ounce  of  this  solution,  add  4  grains  dry  pyrogallic 
acid. 

XYI. 


Pyrogallic  acid,  3J-  grains. 
Sulphuric  acid,  1  drop. 
Concentrated  ammonia,  8  drops. 
Bromide  potassium,  J  grain. 
Water  to  make  4:  ounces. 

XYII. 

PYBO    DEVELOPER   FOB    INSTANTANEOUS   EXPOSURES. 

Sulphite  soda  crystals,  120  grains. 
Carbonate  Potash,  45  grains. 
Bromide  Potassium,  2£  grains. 
Sulphuric  acid,  2  drops. 
Pyrogallic  acid,  15  grains. 
Water  to  make  4  ounces. 
This  is  a  good  developer. 


FORMULAS.  139 

XYIII. 

TONING  BATHS — THE  BORAX  BATH. 

Powdered  Borax,  1  ounce. 
Hot  water  16  ounces. 

When  dissolved  and  cold,  filter. 

For  use,  take  a  sufficient  quantity  of  above,  add  an  equal 
quantity  of  water,  and  one  grain  chloride  gold  and  sodium  for 
each  dozen  5x8  prints. 

This  can  be  used  immediately. 

XIX. 

ACETATE  OF  SODA  BATH. 

Acetate  of  soda,  120  grains. 
Chloride  gold  and  sodium,  6  grains. 
Water  to  make  32  ounces. 

This  should  be  made  the  day  before  wanted  for  use.  It  can  be 
used  several  times,  by  returning  the  old  solution  to  a  separate 
bottle,  adding  each  subsequent  time  about  one-half  dram  of  the 
stock  gold  solution.  (See  chapter  on  Toning). 

There  are  numerous  other  toning  baths,  all  of  which  give  good 
results,  but  we  think  the  above  will  be  found  sufficient  for  all 
albumen  or  plain  silver  prints.  It  must  not  be  forgotten  that  a 
good  negative  is  the  most  important  factor  in  securing  good 
results  in  toning,  and  thorough  washing  before  placing  the 
prints  in  the  toning  bath. 


140 

XX. 

A  SUBSTITUTE  FOB  GROUND  GLASS  can  be  made  by  dissolv- 
ing in  two  ounces  of  commercial  ether  90  grains  gum  sandarac 
and  20  grains  gum  mastic.  When  these  are  dissolved,  add  to 
the  solution  two  ounces  benzole.  This  must  be  kept  in  a  tightly 


corked  bottle  and  not  opened  near  a  light  or  fire.  To  use  it, 
gently  heat  the  glass  to  be  coated  and  apply  the  solution  as  be- 
low. Great  care,  however,  must  be  taken  to  avoid  letting  the 
solution  flow  upon  the  film  side  of  the  plate. 


FORMULAS.  141 

Holding  the  plate  by  one  corner  between  the  thumb  and  fore- 
finger, so  that  the  thumb  will  hardly  touch  the  top  surface  of  the 
glass,  pour  on  the  solution  in  the  center,  till  it  covers  a  third  or 
more  of  the  plate,  tilting  it  gently  each  way.  When  the  solution 
has  thus  spread  over  the  whole  surface,  let  it  drain  back  into  the 
bottle  from  one  corner.  By  standing  the  glass  on  edge,  it  will 
then  dry  in  a  few  minutes.  The  illustrations  were  designed  to 
show  the  operation  of  varnishing  a  plate  (which  is  not  necessary 
with  dry  plates),  but  they  answer  as  well  to  show  the  above 
process. 

XXI. 

GUM    FOR   ADHESIVE    PAPER. 

Place  in  a  half  pint  wide-mouth  bottle 
1  ounce  alcohol, 
5  ounces  water, 

1  ounce  acetic  acid, 
And  pour  into  this  slowly 

2  ounces  dextrine. 

Place  this  bottle  in  a  basin  of  hot  water,  occasionally  shaking 
it,  till  the  dextrine  is  dissolved. 

This  can  be  spread  on  sheets  of  paper  and  will  dry  quickly. 
Such  paper  will  be  useful  for  making  labels  to  paste  on  bottles, 
or  small  strips  to  number  negatives. 


142  THE    AMATEUR    PHOTOGRAPHER'S    HAND   BOOK. 

XXII. 
ANOTHER   GUM 

for  the  same  purpose  can  be  made  by  boiling  in  six  ounces  of 
water 

60  grains  gum  arabic, 
60  grains  laundry  starch, 
1  ounce  white  sugar. 

If  ordinary  mounting  cards  are  coated  with  this  and  allowed 
to  dry,  wet  prints  will  adhere  to  them  by  pressing  them  with 
clean  sheets  of  blotting  paper  to  take  up  the  surplus  moisture. 

XXIII. 

TO    PREPARE    'RUBY   GLASS. 

Dissolve  in  two  ounces  of  hot  water, 

50  grains  sheet  gelatine, 

1  grain  chloride  ammonium, 
When  this  is  cold,  add  a  solution  of 

Nitrate  silver,  10  grains, 

"Water,  1  dram. 

The  glass,  after  being  thoroughly  cleaned,  should  be  warmed, 
and  upon  this  flow  enough  of  the  solution,warmed  to  about  blood 
heat,  to  cover  the  surface.  The  glass  should  then  be  laid  on  a 
level  shelf  for  the  solution  to  set  and  dry.  "When  this  is  after- 
wards exposed  to  the  sunlight,  the  color  will  change  to  an  orange 
ruby,  suitable  for  use  in  a  dark-lantern.  ' 


FORMULAS.  143 

XXIY. 

A    BLACK   VARNISH 

for  coating  the  inside  of  lens  tubes,  plate-holders,  cameras,  etc., 
can  be  made  by  dissolving 

300  grains  gum  sandarac, 
20  grains  gum  camphor, 
in  2  ounces  alcohol, 

And  adding  a  sufficient  quantity  of  lamp  black.     Apply  with 
a  fine  brush. 

XXY. 

TO    INTENSIFY    NEGATIVES. 

No.  1. 

Bichloride  mercury,  240  grains, 
Chloride  ammonium,  240  grains. 
Distilled  water,  20  ounces. 

No.  2. 

Chloride  ammonium,  480  grains. 
"Water,  20  ounces. 

No.  3. 

Sulphite  soda  crystals,  480  grains. 
Water,  10  oz. 

The  negative  to  be  intensified,  should  be  soaked  in  cold  water 
for   fifteen    minutes,   and  then,   after  pouring  off    the    water, 


144 

flow  over  it  sufficient  of  :No.  1  to  cover  it,  and  allow  the  film 
to  either  partially  or  entirely  whiten ;  the  longer  this  is  allowed  to 
act,  the  more  intense  will  be  the  result.  When  sufficiently  whit- 
ened, pour  off  the  solution  into  the  sink,  and  flow  over  the  plate 
some  of  No.  2,  allowing  it  to  act  one  minute;  then  wash  off,  and 
pour  over  or  immerse  in  No.  3,  until  changed  entirely  to  a  dark 
brown  or  black.  No.  3  can  be  returned  to  its  bottle,  but  the 
used  portions  of  Nos.  1  and  2  had  better  be  thrown  away.  After 
the  last  operation,  wash  the  plate  thoroughly  and  dry. 

"We  are  indebted  to  Mr.  Carbutt  for  the  above. 

To  intensify  locally,  use  "  Hall's  intensifier  "  (for  sale  by  deal- 
ers). This  should  be  applied  very  carefully  with  a  brush.  It 
will  bring  out  details  in  shaded  parts. 

Local  intensifying  can  also  be  done  mechanically  by  applying 
indigo  blue  with  the  finger  to  the  glass  side  of  negatives,  moist- 
ening the  color  with  gum-water.  This  will  intensify  enough  to 
lighten  deep  shadows. 

XXYI. 

TO    REDUCE    NEGATIVES. 

Bichromate  potassium,  60  grains. 
Muriatic  acid,  1  dram. 
Water,  6  ounces. 

Lay  the  plate  in  water  for  a  few  minutes,  and  transfer  to  the 
above  till  the  reduction  is  sufficient,  after  which  wash  the  plate 
thoroughly. 

This  can  also  be  applied  .with  a  fine  brush  to  parts  requiring 
local  reduction. 


FORMULAS.  145 

XXYII. 

TO  REDUCE   LOCALLY. 

Prepare  a  solution  of 

Hyposulphite  soda,  35  grains. 
Red  prussiate  potash,  5  grains. 
Water,  4  ounces. 

Apply  this  carefully  to  parts  needing  reduction,  with  a  fine, 
soft  brush,  after  soaking  the  plate  ten  minutes  in  water  to  soften 
the  film.  Wash  the  plate  and  repeat,  if  necessary. 

We  have  seen  portrait  negatives,  in  which  the  face  was  so  in. 
tense  as  to  require  prolonged  exposure  in  sunlight  to  bring  out 
any  detail,  which  were  successfully  reduced  in  the  above  way. 

XXVIII. 


No.  1. 

Hyposulphite  soda,  1  ounce. 
Water,  16  ounces. 

No.  2. 

Eed  prussiate  potash,  55  grains. 
Water,  2  ounces. 

For  use  add  one  half  dram  No.  2  to  each  ounce  of  No.  1.  The 
negative  is  immersed  in  the  solution,  and  as  the  high  lights  are 
attacked  first  they  may  be  effectually  reduced  before  the  shadows 
are  touched.  The  larger  the  quantity  of  No.  2  used,  the  more 

10 


146  THE    AMATEUR    PHOTOGRAPHER'S    HAND    BOOK. 

rapid  will  be  the  reduction.  To  reduce  locally,  apply  the  mixed 
solution  with  a  soft  brush  to  the  particular  parts.  Wash  plate 
well  after  these  operations. 

This  same  solution  may  be  used  to  reduce  over-printed  photo- 
graphs on  paper  without  affecting  the  tone  in  the  least. 

XXIX.  . 

LOCAL  REDUCTION. 

If  any  parts  of  a  negative  show  in  printing  too  great  intensity, 
they  can  be  reduced  by  soaking  for  ten  minutes  in  cool  water,  and 
then  applying  a  weak  solution  of  chloride  of  lime  to  the  parts  till 
sufficiently  reduced.  During  this  process  the  negative  should  be 
kept  wet,  and  afterwards  thoroughly  washed.  Some  photogra- 
phers rub  the  parts  with  the  finger  wet  with  the  lime  solution, 
but  an  unskilled  hand  is  liable,  in  doing  this,  to  injure  the  film. 
If  the  intensity  is  noticed  during  development  it  can  be  reduced 
by  applying  the  lime  as  above,  after  fixing  and  washing. 

TIN     DEVELOPING    DISHES. 

These  can  be  coated  with  a  quick-drying  asphalt  varnish,  the 
same  kind  as  is  used  on  bicycles. 

IN  REGARD  TO    GLUE. 

Glue,  with  a  small  percentage  of  glycerine  added,  adheres  to 
rnetals.  A  small  amount  of  molasses  added  to  glue  will  act  in 
the  same  way. 


FORMULAS.  147 

Tannin  added  to  glue  makes  it  strong  and  adherent.  Carbon- 
ate of  potash  renders  glue  water  proof. 

REMOVING   FILMS   FKOM    OLD    NEGATIVES. 

To  remove  gelatine  films  from  plates,  our  practice  is  to  soak 
them  in  a  basin  of  hot  water,  which  loosens  the  films  so  that  they 
easily  peel  off. 


INDEX. 

PAGE. 

Air  bubbles,  38 

Albumen  paper,           -  86 

.Albumen  for  prints,           .---..  70 

Black  varnish,            ...  143 

Blisters,       -                                 ....  65 

Blue  paper,  To  prepare         ....  .                 72 

Blue  prints,  .  .72 

Blue  transparencies,               --..--  113 

Bottles,        .                      ....                      .  29,  30 

Bromide  prints,  Developing             ....  125,  132,  134 

Brush  for  sensitizing  paper,         ....  82 

Burnishing  prints,        .......  69 

Cameras,        -                                .           •           •           -           -  7,  8,  115,  125 

Chemicals,        -                      .....  28 

Clouds,  Printing  in                      ...  96 

Copying,                                  .  „       -           -           -  103,  114 

Counting  time,       ......  21,  22 

Dark  lantern,                          ....  47 

Dark  room,                                   ....  43 

Defects  in  negatives,              ......  56 

Detective  cameras,                        .....  125 

Developer  for  lantern  slides,           -  108,  132,  135 

Developers,                                   -           -                       -  129-138 

Developers,  Preparation  of  31,  32,  33,  36 

Developing,                                   -           -           -           -  36,  51 

Developing  in  warm  weather,         ...  53,  54 

Development,  Notes  on                          ....  51 

Diaphragms,  20,  88 

148 


INDEX. 

PAGE. 

Drawing  and  replacing  the  slide,        ....  15,  22 

Drying  plates,                                     .           .           .           -           -  41,  42 

Dry  plates,                                    -           -           .           .           .  11,  12,  13 

Duplicating  negatives,          ......  112 

Dusting  plates,        .......  16 

Enlarging  and  reducing,      ......  114 

Exposures,  First              ....                        .  14 

Filtering,         ........  34 

Fixing  bath,         .......  30 

Fixing  plates,                                     ...                       .  40,  41,  42 

Fixing  prints,       -           -           -           .           -                       -  63,  65 

Flash  lights, '.  101 

Focusing, 18,  19,  20,  24,  123 

Focusing  quickly,      ......  123 

Formulas,             ......  129 

Fuming  box,                          .....  59 

Fuming  paper,     -                       ......  59 

Gelatine  films,  To  remove               .....  147 

General  hints,        -                      .           .           .                      .  122 

Getting  the  focus,     -  .  .  .  18,  19,  20,  24 

Glue,                                              ...                        „  146 

Graduates.        •                       ......  29 

Graduating  bottles,                      .....  29,  30 

Ground  Glass,  Imitation       ---.--  140 

Gums,        .                                                                       .  141,  143 

Hanging  papers  for  drying,                                     -  124 

Instantaneous  exposures,  Developing                ...  54 

Intensifying  and  reducing,              -                        ...  143-146 

Interiors,                                        .....  100 

Knife  for  lifting  plates,        ......  39 

Landscapes,           -                        -           ....  91 

Lantern  slides,                         ......  106,  115 

Lenses,       ........  9 

Marking  plates  with  pencil,             -           -           -           .           .  123 

149 


INDEX. 

PAGE. 
Masks  for  printing,         .  75,  84,  85 

Microscopic  photographs,      -                       ....  124 

Mounting  prints,               ......  57 

Negative  rack,                         -   *                                ...  41 

Negatives,  Arrangement  for  storing                 ...  45 

Note  paper,  Photographs  on                        ....  us,  119 

Numbering  plate  holders,                                   .                       .  17 

Ornamental  photography,       ......  117 

Orthochromatic  photography,      -                       ...  95 

Outfit,  The                              .           .           -           -    -       -           .  7 

Over-exposure,       -                                                            -           .  52,  56 

Paper  on  negatives,  Removing  bits  of  57 

Paste  for  mounting,                                  ....  67 

Photo-chloride  prints,  Developing  -  125,  132,  134 

Pins  for  suspending  paper,                                 .           -            .  124 

Plain  paper,                ---..__  77 
Plate-holders,                                            .           -                       -10,  15,  123 

Plate  marks  on  prints,           -           -                       .           ^            -  76,  85 

Plates,  How  packed                                            ...  15 

Plate- washing  arrangement,                           ....  49 

Polishing  prints,                ......  69,  70 

Portraits,                      .......  97 

Preserving  plain  sensitized  paper,         -           -           -           -  83,  84 

Printing  on  blue  paper,                                           -                       -  75 

Printing  on  plain  paper,              .....  84 

Printing  on  ready  sensitized  paper,             -           -                       -  58 

Rack  for  drying  plates,                .....  41 

Record  book,                .......  17 

Reducing  and  intensifying,  143-146 

Remarque  proofs,         -                       .....  120 

Residues,                .......  127 

Restrainer,         -           -           -           .           .           .           .           -  31,  52 

Ruby  glass,  To  prepare  142 

Salt  bath  for  prints, 65 

150 


INDEX. 

• 

PAGE. 

Salting  plain  paper,                                                                        77,  78,  79,  80 

Sensitizing  albumen  paper,                           -                                   -  86 

Sensitizing  plain  paper,                                        -                        -  82,  83 

Setting  up  the  camera,                      .....  jg 

Silver  solution  for  plain  paper,                          ...  80,  81 

Sliding  fronts,                                                                            .  19 

Snow  scenes,                                   .....  94 

Soda  blotting  paper,                          .....  §4 

Spotting  out  prints,                                              ...  68 

Stock  solutions,  How  to  make                                 ...  31 

Stops  on  diaphragms,                                           -           -  20,  88 

Swing-backs,        -           ....           .           .'.           .  89 

Testing  dark-room  and  lantern,              ....  48 

Time  of  exposures,                                                                            21,  22,  24,  25 
Toning  baths,                                                         .           .           -62,  63,  139 

Toning  prints,                           ......  Q% 

Touching  out  spots  in  negatives,            ....  56 

Transparencies,                                   .....  m 

Trays,                                                             .                                     .  39,   37 

Tripods,                         .......  10 

Under-exposure,                  ......  52,  53 

Vignette  masks,                      .                       -                                   .  85,  86 

Vignette  papers,                 ......  118 

Washing. jar  for  prints,          ......  (55 

Washing  plates,                  -           .           .           .           -           -  41,  44,  49 

Waste  from  prints,  Saving               ....           -  62,  127 

Weighing  chemicals,         ......  34 


151 


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Meat  or  Vegetables. 
Four  Plated  Tea  Spoons. 
Two  Plated  Table  Spoons. 
Four  Steel  Knives, 
Four  Steel  Forks. 
One  Salt-cellar. 
One  Pepper  Box. 


Complete  Outfit  put  up  in  durable 
Canvas  Bag  with  Shoulder  Strap  as 
shown  in  illustration. 

Dimensions : 

9  inches  in  diameter, 
12  inches  high, 
Weight  14  pounds, 
Price  complete,  $12.00. 


MANUFACTURED  AND  FOR  SALE  BY 


THE  JOHN  WILKINSON  CO,    -    55  State  St,  Chicago. 


Waterbury  Detective  Gamera. 

Its  points  of  Superiority  ar^: 
EXCELLENCE  OF  ITS  LENS.  FINE  DEFINITION. 

ACCURACY  OF  FOCUSING  SCALE. 
SIMPLICITY  OF  FOCUSING  LEVER.      COMPACT  AND  LIGHT. 

FOR  TIME  AND  INSTANTANEOUS  VIEWS. 
SHUTTLR  WORKS  QUICK  OR  SLOW"        TWO  DIAPHRAGMS 
PLATE  FOR  USE  ON  TRIPOD.     GROUND  GLASS  FULL  SIZE. 


An  experienced  Amateur  owning  Cameras  all  sizes,  from  4x5  to  10x12,  says: 

"If  I  had  to  part  with  all  my  Cameras  but  one,  I 
should  keep  tyny  Waterbury  Detective.  It  is  good  for  all 
kinds  of  work." 


The  SCOVILL  &  ADAMS  CO.,  Manufacturers, 

423  Broome  Street,  NEW  YORK. 


*  Peerless9    Plates 

MADE  BY 

THE  EASTMAN  COMPANY, 


ARE  UNEQUALLED  FOR 


AND  FOR  USE  IN 


Wfiile  tTiey  are  t?ie  qjiztcfcest  plates  made. 

They  allow  great  latitude  of  exposure. 


VC  34090 


r 


RETURN  TO  the  circulation  desk  of  any 

University  of  California  Library 

or  to  the 

NORTHERN  REGIONAL  LIBRARY  FACILITY 
Bldg.  400,  Richmond  Field  Station 
University  of  California 
Richmond,  CA  94804-4698 

ALL  BOOKS  MAY  BE  RECALLED  AFTER  7  DAYS 
2-month  loans  may  be  renewed  by  calling 

(510)642-6753 
1-year  loans  may  be  recharged  by  bringing  books 

to  NRLF 
Renewals    and    recharges    may    be    made    4    days 

prior  to  due  date 

DUE  AS  STAMPED  BELOW 


021995 


APR  18  2003 


20,000  (4/94) 


